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BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
Published in: BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 1/2019

Open Access 01-12-2019 | Nutrition | Research article

Mobile phone applications to overcome malnutrition among preschoolers: a systematic review

Authors: Navisa Seyyedi, Bahlol Rahimi, Hamid Reza Farrokh Eslamlou, Toomas Timpka, Hadi Lotfnezhad Afshar

Published in: BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making | Issue 1/2019

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Abstract

Background

Malnutrition is one of the most important reasons for child mortality in developing countries, especially during the first 5 years of life. We set out to systematically review evaluations of interventions that use mobile phone applications to overcome malnutrition among preschoolers.

Methods

The review was conducted and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses: the PRISMA statement. To be eligible, the study had to have evaluated mobile phone interventions to increase nutrition knowledge or enhance behavior related to nutrition in order to cope with malnutrition (under nutrition or overweight) in preschoolers. Articles addressing other research topics, older children or adults, review papers, theoretical and conceptual articles, editorials, and letters were excluded. The PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases covering both medical and technical literature were searched for studies addressing preschoolers’ malnutrition using mobile technology.

Results

Seven articles were identified that fulfilled the review criteria. The studies reported in the main positive signals concerning the acceptance of mobile phone based nutritional interventions addressing preschoolers. Important infrastructural and technical limitations to implement mHealth in low and middle income countries (LMICs) were also communicated, ranging from low network capacity and low access to mobile phones to specific technical barriers. Only one study was identified evaluating primary anthropometric outcomes.

Conclusions

The review findings indicated a need for more controlled evaluations using anthropometric primary endpoints and put relevance to the suggestion that cooperation between government organizations, academia, and industry is necessary to provide sufficient infrastructure support for mHealth use against malnutrition in LMICs.
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Metadata
Title
Mobile phone applications to overcome malnutrition among preschoolers: a systematic review
Authors
Navisa Seyyedi
Bahlol Rahimi
Hamid Reza Farrokh Eslamlou
Toomas Timpka
Hadi Lotfnezhad Afshar
Publication date
01-12-2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making / Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 1472-6947
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0803-2

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