Digital parenting interventions for fathers of infants from conception to 12 months of age: A systematic review (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Digital interventions help address barriers to traditional healthcare services. Fathers play an important parenting role in their family and father involvement is beneficial for family well-being. Although digital interventions are a promising avenue to facilitate father involvement during the perinatal period, most are oriented to maternal needs and do not address the unique needs of fathers. OBJECTIVE The current systematic review described the digital interventions that exist or that are currently being developed for fathers of infants from conception to 12 months postpartum. METHODS A systematic search across Medline, PsycINFO, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL (using Ovid), and Embase (using EBSCO) databases were used to identify 2009 articles up to June 2022, of which 39 met inclusion criteria. Articles were included if they were peer reviewed and described a digital intervention that targeted fathers of fetuses and/or infants up to 12 months. Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and opinion pieces were excluded. Data from studies were extracted and themed using a narrative synthesis approach. Quality appraisals of articles were conducted using the mixed methods appraisal tool (MMAT). RESULTS Articles included 29 different interventions across 13 different countries. Most articles described interventions that were exclusively digital (76%). There were a variety of digital modalities, but interventions were most commonly designed to be delivered via website/online portal (48%). Just over half of the articles described an intervention that was designed to be delivered from pregnancy through the postpartum period (54%). Only 26% of the articles targeted fathers exclusively. A wide range of outcomes were included with 54% of articles including a primary outcome related to intervention feasibility. Of the 18 articles primarily examining efficacy outcomes, 72% reported a statistically significant intervention effect. Articles demonstrated a moderate quality level overall. CONCLUSIONS New and expecting fathers use digital technologies, which could be used to help address father specific barriers to traditional healthcare services. However, there seem to be mixed findings regarding the feasibility/acceptability and efficacy of existing digital interventions. There is a need for more development and testing of interventions that target father-identified priorities. This review was limited by not assessing equity-oriented outcomes (e.g., race and socioeconomic status), which should also be considered in future intervention development. CLINICALTRIAL NA