Patient engagement practice within perinatal eHealth: A scoping review

Background There is a gap in knowledge about how perinatal eHealth programs function to support autonomy for new and expectant parents from pursuing wellness goals. Objectives To examine patient engagement (access, personalization, commitment and therapeutic alliance) within the practice of perinatal eHealth. Design Scoping review. Methods Five databases were searched in January 2020 and updated in April 2022. Reports were vetted by three researchers and included if they documented maternity/neonatal programs and utilized World Health Organization (WHO) person‐centred digital health intervention (DHI) categories. Data were charted using a deductive matrix containing WHO DHI categories and patient engagement attributes. A narrative synthesis was conducted utilizing qualitative content analysis. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses ‘extension for scoping reviews’ guidelines were followed for reporting. Results Twelve eHealth modalities were found across 80 included articles. The analysis yielded two conceptual insights: (1) The nature of perinatal eHealth programs: (1) emergence of a complex structure of practice and (2) practising patient engagement within perinatal eHealth. Conclusion Results will be used to operationalize a model of patient engagement within perinatal eHealth.