Mobile Phone Applications to Support Breastfeeding Among African-American Women: a Scoping Review

Background Racial disparities persist concerning breastfeeding. The use of health e-technology is increasing, with promise for a role in improving breastfeeding outcomes.
Objective We undertook a scoping review of both individual breastfeeding apps and the literature on breastfeeding apps to map the available evidence on app-based breastfeeding support for African-American mothers.

Design A systematic search of online databases identified 241 English language papers published on or before June 2020 that included e-technology in support of breastfeeding. We included those that (1) described individual human subjects research studies utilizing any research design, (2) described app-based breastfeeding support, and (3) could be pertinent for African- American mothers, and assessed for inclusion and relevance for this population. We also searched app stores for breastfeeding apps and evaluated features with a rubric. We aimed to identify if gaps exist relative to breastfeeding support for African- Americans.

Results Of the 15 publications meeting inclusion criteria, 9 focused on app development, 4 examined user experience, and 3 examined breastfeeding outcomes with the use of an app (one study overlapped categories). The percentage of African-American participants ranged from 100% (2 studies) to none (7 studies); 3 studies (20%) focused on African-American mothers’ breastfeeding experience. Of 77 apps that met inclusion criteria, just one was both breastfeeding-focused by content and targeted at African-Americans by picture predominance.

Conclusions The quality of studies was generally high and many included African-American participants, but research focused on breastfeeding apps specifically for African-American mothers/parents is limited, creating a meaningful gap in the literature.