Digital voice recorders - A conceptual intervention to facilitate contemporaneous record keeping in midwifery practice

Pandemic-related stress in pregnant women during the first COVID-19 lockdown and neonatal development

BACKGROUND

Maternal stress and psychopathology have a negative effect on mothers and neonates. Maternal stress may affect neonatal growth and development both physically and psychologically.

PURPOSE

To study the impact of pandemic-related pregnancy stress and maternal psychopathological symptoms during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 on neonatal development.

METHODS

A two-phase prospective study was carried out on a sample of 181 pregnant women ranged from 18 to 40 years old in Spain (Europe). Phase 1: Pandemic-related pregnancy stress (PREPS), Prenatal Distress Questionnaire (PDQ), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the revised version of the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90-R) were used to assess psychological symptoms during the lockdown. In the follow-up (Phase 2), obstetric, birth-related and anthropometric variables were collected from 81 pregnant women-neonates dyads.

RESULTS

Primiparous women showed higher psychopathological symptoms and higher levels of pandemic-related pregnancy stress than multiparous women. A multiple linear regression model showed that pandemic-related pregnancy stress could predict the length of neonate by adjusting for maternal age and gestational age, especially for primiparous women.

IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH

Studies assessing neonates development should evaluate the long-term effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on neonates´ length.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

States the relation between pandemic-related pregnancy stress and neonatal development by being able to track the effects on neonates whose mothers had high levels of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

iCHECK-DH: Guidelines and Checklist for the Reporting on Digital Health Implementations

BACKGROUND

Implementation of digital health technologies has grown rapidly, but many remain limited to pilot studies due to challenges, such as a lack of evidence or barriers to implementation. Overcoming these challenges requires learning from previous implementations and systematically documenting implementation processes to better understand the real-world impact of a technology and identify effective strategies for future implementation.

OBJECTIVE

A group of global experts, facilitated by the Geneva Digital Health Hub, developed the Guidelines and Checklist for the Reporting on Digital Health Implementations (iCHECK-DH, pronounced "I checked") to improve the completeness of reporting on digital health implementations.

METHODS

A guideline development group was convened to define key considerations and criteria for reporting on digital health implementations. To ensure the practicality and effectiveness of the checklist, it was pilot-tested by applying it to several real-world digital health implementations, and adjustments were made based on the feedback received. The guiding principle for the development of iCHECK-DH was to identify the minimum set of information needed to comprehensively define a digital health implementation, to support the identification of key factors for success and failure, and to enable others to replicate it in different settings.

RESULTS

The result was a 20-item checklist with detailed explanations and examples in this paper. The authors anticipate that widespread adoption will standardize the quality of reporting and, indirectly, improve implementation standards and best practices.

CONCLUSIONS

Guidelines for reporting on digital health implementations are important to ensure the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of reported information. This allows for meaningful comparison and evaluation of results, transparency, and accountability and informs stakeholder decision-making. i-CHECK-DH facilitates standardization of the way information is collected and reported, improving systematic documentation and knowledge transfer that can lead to the development of more effective digital health interventions and better health outcomes.