Background

The high global maternal mortality ratio of 211 per 100,000 live births indicates a need to address maternal health deficits. Due to the wide usage and affordability of mobile technologies, mobile health (mHealth) has been proffered as an approach to improve maternal health care. We aimed to synthesise current evidence on the impact of mHealth interventions on the maternal health care indicators outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Research question

What is the impact of mHealth interventions on maternal health care indicators (antenatal care, skilled birth attendance, facility-based delivery, postnatal care and maternal mortality) among pregnant/postpartum women or mothers?

Methods

The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Embase and MEDLINE were systematically searched with MeSH terms and keywords pertinent to the review. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on the impact of mHealth interventions on maternal health indicators among women published between 2015–2023 were included. The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklist for RCTs and Cochrane Risk of Bias (RoB) tool were used for critical appraisal. Results were presented narratively and analysed through thematic synthesis.

Results

Of 4086 studies retrieved, 12 RCTs were eligible. Quality assessment indicated six good quality, four fair-quality and two poor-quality trials. Although mHealth interventions and effect sizes differed, all trials showed positive direction of effect favouring intervention groups, in that mHealth interventions improved maternal health indicators. Evidence on the effectiveness of mHealth in increasing facility-based deliveries, antenatal and postnatal care visits was more convincing because of the robustness of reporting RCTs.

Conclusion

mHealth positively impacts maternal health indicators and should be implemented in clinical practice. However, there are concerns about the evidence base quality and heterogeneity of mHealth interventions. More good-quality RCTs should be undertaken before scaling up mHealth initiatives. mHealth interventions should be standardised to accommodate maternal health care needs of various populaces.