Effects of Nurse‐Led e‐Health Interventions on the Health‐Related Outcomes of Pregnant Women: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT

Background

Pregnancy is a special time for women that involves substantial emotional, physical, social, and family changes, which can lead to physical and psychological harm. The rapid development of e-health has provided a favourable platform for managing health-related outcomes in pregnant women, and nurses are the professional group that is most likely to provide e-health services. Nurse-led e-health interventions have attracted increasing attention, but their effects are uncertain.

Objective

To identify the effectiveness of nurse-led e-health interventions in improving health-related outcomes in pregnant women.

Design

A systematic review.

Data Sources

The PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL, ProQuest, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases were searched from inception to March 2023.

Methods

Two reviewers independently assessed study eligibility and extracted data. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used for quality assessment. The findings of this review are presented using a narrative synthesis.

Results

This review included 14 studies involving 2016 participants. Three out of five studies reported that nurse-led e-health interventions significantly reduced depressive symptoms. Four studies reported significant improvements in stress and self-efficacy after the intervention. Two studies reported significant improvements in anxiety symptoms, self-management ability, and quality of life after the intervention. One study showed that weight gain and physical activity significantly improved after the intervention. Due to the heterogeneity in the included studies, no meta-analysis was conducted.

Conclusions

Nurse-led e-health interventions may be beneficial for improving anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, stress, self-efficacy, weight gain, self-management ability, physical activity, and quality of life in pregnant women.

Relevance to Clinical Practice

Nurse-led e-health interventions could provide individualised, economic, interactive, and convenient nursing modes for pregnant women. Rigorous and high-quality evidence confirming the long-term effects of these interventions on pregnant women is necessary.

No Patient or Public Contribution

The patients had no direct involvement in the present study.

Registration Number

PROSPERO registration ID: CRD42023401973