Impact of a Mobile Health Intervention to Support Exclusive Breastfeeding: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Nowadays, mobile health (mHealth) intervention has become a popular and convenient strategy to support exclusive breastfeeding (EBF). However, the effectiveness of the mHealth intervention on this topic is still ambiguous. Thus, a scoping review was done to map the available evidence and identify the impact of mHealth interventions to support EBF. A scoping review of English academic journals was conducted using four electronic databases (Scopus, EBSCOHost, Google Scholar, and Science Direct) from 2016 to 2021. Only 23 articles were eligible. The sample size ranged from 50 to 1,568 participants, aged 18 and above. About 60% of the reviewed articles showed that mHealth interventions had a significant impact on EBF. The intervention group that received the mHealth tools had longer and higher EBF rates and duration compared to the control group. Other articles did not find a significant mHealth intervention impact towards EBF; however, it increased breastfeeding efficacy, mother’s knowledge and the child’s body weight.