Understanding Information Needs and Barriers to Accessing Health Information Across All Stages of Pregnancy: Systematic Review

Abstract

Background Understanding consumers’ health information needs across all stages of the pregnancy trajectory is crucial to the development of mechanisms that allow them to retrieve high-quality, customized, and layperson-friendly health information. Objective The objective of this study was to identify research gaps in pregnancy-related consumer information needs and available information from different sources. Methods We conducted a systematic review of CINAHL, Cochrane, PubMed, and Web of Science for relevant articles that were published from 2009 to 2019. The quality of the included articles was assessed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program. A descriptive data analysis was performed on these articles. Based on the review result, we developed the Pregnancy Information Needs Ontology (PINO) and made it publicly available in GitHub and BioPortal. Results A total of 33 articles from 9 countries met the inclusion criteria for this review, of which the majority were published no earlier than 2016. Most studies were either descriptive (9/33, 27%), interviews (7/33, 21%), or surveys/questionnaires (7/33, 21%); 20 articles mentioned consumers’ pregnancy-related information needs. Half (9/18, 50%) of the human-subject studies were conducted in the United States. More than a third (13/33, 39%) of all studies focused on during-pregnancy stage; only one study (1/33, 3%) was about all stages of pregnancy. The most frequent consumer information needs were related to labor delivery (9/20, 45%), medication in pregnancy (6/20, 30%), newborn care (5/20, 25%), and lab tests (6/20, 30%). The most frequently available source of information was the internet (15/24, 63%). PINO consists of 267 classes, 555 axioms, and 271 subclass relationships. Conclusions Only a few articles assessed the barriers to access to pregnancy-related information and the quality of each source of information; further work is needed. Future work is also needed to address the gaps between the information needed and the information available.

Information Gathering about Pregnancy, Birth, and Puerperium—Good and Fake Information

“…Moreover, they might follow social media influencers and ultimately be more vulnerable to false information. To avoid such misinformation and confusion provided by the Internet, professionals should act as scientific and clinically experienced influencers, promote reliable websites, and, furthermore, support their patients with data retrieval, interpretation, and application [ 3 , 5 , 8 ]. Thus, clearly, behavior on the Internet must be better understood by health professionals [ 10 ].…”

“…It has been shown that health professionals’ knowledge about different sources of information gathering among their patients improves understanding and counseling. Previous research has primarily focused on how pregnant women currently gather information online and how the reliability of the retrieved information is assessed [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. In contrast, this study focuses on the perceived performance of accessible information.…”

Assessing the Views and Needs of People at High Risk of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus for the Development of Mobile Health Apps: Descriptive Qualitative Study

“…Studies have shown [ 56 ] that pregnant women tend to trust professional decision support. Professional support provided by medical staff can meet the needs of pregnant women in pregnancy health care, which relieves anxiety and uncertainty of women during pregnancy [ 57 , 58 ] and helps pregnant women establish a healthy lifestyle [ 59 ]. When professionals cannot provide timely and effective feedback, pregnant women usually seek help from relatives and friends or through the internet.…”

The Effect of an educational Intervention on Anxiety of Pregnant Women: A Quasi-Experimental Study

“…(17) According to the most recent statistics announced by the Gerash Health Department, pregnant mothers had the lowest participation rate in educational classes, so that only 8% participated in classes on natural childbirth benefits and 9% in childbirth danger education training class in 2019. Lu et al (31) stated that there is a gap between the current care provided and high-quality care, and that continuous follow-up and clarification can be effective in reducing this gap. In this regard, it can be claimed that the presence of health care providers (including NPs and midwives) alongside family physicians, as one of the main pillars of the referral system, plays a significant role in reducing pregnancy anxiety through their encouragement of pregnant mothers to participate regularly in pregnancy training classes and follow-up on their presence in these classes.…”