SynthesisMaternal & child nutrition2025
Mobile applications for promoting and supporting breastfeeding: Systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Maternal & child nutrition, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effects of Digital Health Interventions on Breastfeeding Rates, Self-Efficacy, and Knowledge: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- The Impact of Peer Support Through Mobile Health Applications on Breastfeeding Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Maternal & child nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Evaluating the Effectiveness of mHealth Application Interventions to Promote Breastfeeding Amongst Pregnant Women and Postpartum Mothers: A Global Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Maternal & child nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Digital Interventions Targeting Parents to Improve Early Childhood Movement, Nutrition, and Sleep Behaviors: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- Mobile applications for promoting and supporting breastfeeding: Systematic review and meta-analysis.Maternal & child nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Infant Feeding Apps and Digital Parenting in Australia: Qualitative Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2026Article
- Associations between maternal perceptions of infant growth and feeding and infant growth outcomes in community health clinics: a prospective multicentre longitudinal study.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2026Article
- Agile Development and Testing of a Gamified Human Milk Feeding Education Mobile App for Participants of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children: Co-Design Approach.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Mobile Apps and Websites With Breastfeeding-Related Content in Germany: Cross-Sectional and Evaluation Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2026Article
- Editorial: Public health innovations for enhancing newborn and maternal wellbeing.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Longitudinal studies on breastfeeding among preterm infants: a scoping review.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- A Mobile App for Promoting Breastfeeding-Friendly Communities in Hong Kong: Design and Development Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Breastfeeding practices require improvement. We performed a systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and analytic observational studies to assess effects of mobile applications (apps) aiming to support and promote breastfeeding targeting pregnant women, mothers of infants or their partners, on breastfeeding outcomes. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane CENTRAL and Association of Computing Machinery Digital Library from 1 July 2008 to 29 November 2022, with lack of coverage of the most recent period before publication date being a limitation of this review. We performed meta-analyses of findings from RCTs on primary outcomes, namely early breastfeeding initiation, exclusive and any breastfeeding rates. Joanna Briggs Institute tools were used for risk of bias assessment. Six RCTs, one quasi-experimental and two cohort studies, mainly from high-income countries, were included. Most studies focused on maternal app usage starting from pregnancy. One study targeted fathers as app-users. Population characteristics, such as parity or delivery mode, apps scope of content and applied active components varied between studies. Main methodological limitations of studies were baseline differences between groups and lack of blinding. Compared to controls, app usage tended to increase the odds of exclusive breastfeeding. This nonsignificant effect was most pronounced at 1-1.5 months (n = 1294, odds ratio 1.45 (95% Confidence Interval, CI 0.83, 2.54), with considerable heterogeneity between studies [I
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.