Psychological or educational eHealth interventions on depression, anxiety or stress following preterm birth: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the efficacy and characteristics of psychological or educational eHealth interventions on reducing symptoms of mental illness in parents of preterm or low birthweight infants.

Background: Many parents suffer psychological disorders after preterm birth. Computer or mobile application-based interventions are a promising alternative.

Methods: We searched seven electronic databases up to January 2020 and included randomised and quasi-randomised controlled trials assessing psychological or educational eHealth interventions in parents of infants born very preterm <32 weeks or with very low birthweight <1500g (primary question), or preterm <37 weeks or with low birthweight <2500g (secondary question). Primary outcomes were measures of depression, anxiety, acute stress disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder. Secondary outcomes included other indicators of mental health, quality of life and intervention characteristics. We had planned random-effects meta-analysis in our protocol (CRD42018105731).

Results: Of 9768 records, no study reported our primary outcomes. Three studies showed potential benefits for parental self-efficacy, discharge preparedness, parental satisfaction and family satisfaction with the neonatal intensive care unit.

Conclusions: We found scarce evidence on the efficacy of psychological or educational eHealth interventions on reducing mental illness in parents of preterm or low birthweight infants, highlighting the need for more research.

KEYWORDS:

• Preterm birth
• low birthweight
• e-health
• postpartum mental health
• systematic review

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Ms Neera Bhatnagar for her assistance with the search strategy and Kiran Ninan and Cezara Ene for their administrative support.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. SDM is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Maternal and Child Obesity Prevention and Intervention (Sponsor Award #950–229920). CIHR had no role in the design of the study; collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; or writing of the manuscript.