Review articles
A scoping review on health behavior changes in women toward preconception care
2022 Volume 36 Issue 2 Pages 162-175
Details
2022 Volume 36 Issue 2 Pages 162-175
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to review intervention studies on preconception care for women in order to clarify the effectiveness of interventions and outcome measures, and thereby open doors to further investigations that will contribute to the advancement of research in the field of preconception care in Japan.
Methods
PubMed, Cochrane Library/ CENTRAL, EMBASE, and the NPO Japan Medical Abstracts Society database (Ichushi-Web) were searched in October 2020 to gather relevant studies in order to outline the main concepts and evidence underlying health behavior changes of preconception care in women.
Results
From the results of this study, 38 overseas studies, and three studies in Japan were retrieved. In terms of the range of effects of interventions/programs, the overseas studies included the following 10 areas: 1. nutrition and diet, 2. knowledge of fertility and health, 3. contraceptive methods, 4. physical activity, 5. physical and physiological indicators, 6. prevention of alcohol and tobacco exposure pregnancy, 7. folic acid supplementation, 8. mental and psychological changes, 9. pregnancy, childbirth, and birth outcomes, and 10. other areas. In the domestic studies, four areas were categorized: 1. knowledge about health and preconception care, 2. awareness related to preconception care, 3. nutrition and diet, and 4. other areas.
Conclusion
This scoping review revealed that research on preconception care in Japan is limited only to the areas of knowledge, awareness, and nutrition related to preconception care. As there is still limited research on this topic, this study suggests that certain areas of research that are lacking should be investigated. In particular, further studies on folic acid supplementation in preconception, physical activity, prevention of alcohol and tobacco exposure pregnancy, mental and psychological changes, physical and physiological indicators, and pregnancy and birth outcomes were suggested.
