Potential effects of virtual interventions for menopause management: a systematic review

Abstract

Importance: Menopausal women are one of the fastest growing demographic groups globally. Virtual interventions have emerged as alternate avenues for menopausal women to manage and cope with their symptoms.Objective: The purpose of this review is to summarize existing research on the potential effects of virtual interventions for menopause management.Evidence Review: This systematic review was written in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. MEDLINE, PsychINFO, CINAHL, AgeLine, ERIC, ProQuest, Nursing and Allied Health Database, PsychARTICLES, and Sociology Database were used for literature search and searched from conception to December 2021. Original studies, including randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies, were included if they evaluated a virtual intervention for menopause management and investigated the effects of these interventions on physical and psychosocial outcomes and/or the feasibility of these interventions among menopausal women. Included studies were published in peer-reviewed journals and assessed for quality using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program Checklists.Findings: A total of 16 articles were included in this review. Virtual interventions have the potential to improve physical health outcomes including body weight/body mass index/waist circumference, pain, blood pressure, and cholesterol. However, conflicting results were identified for the outcomes of vasomotor and endocrine symptoms, sleep, and sexual functioning. Virtual interventions might also improve psychosocial outcomes, including knowledge and patient-physician communication, although conflicting results were again identified for treatment decision-making ability, quality of life, and anxiety and depression. Virtual interventions were feasible in terms of being usable and costeffective, and eliciting satisfaction and compliance among menopausal women.Conclusions and Relevance: Virtual interventions might have the potential to improve the physical and psychosocial health outcomes of menopausal women, although some conflicting findings arose. Future studies should focus on including diverse menopausal women and ethnic minorities, conducting research within low-to middle-income countries and communities, further exploring intervention design to incorporate features that are age and culture sensitive, and conducting full randomized controlled trials to evaluate the effects of the interventions.

The effect of mobile app-based self-care training on the quality of marital relations and the severity of menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women: a clinical trial study in Iran

“…Another study in Iran confirmed the effect of virtual programs on improving the quality of life, vasomotor symptoms, and physical and sexual aspects of women [ 26 ]. Although Eun-Ok et al (2017) [ 27 ] believe that these effects may be influenced by the Hawthorn effect, other studies that reported the improving effect of mHeath and virtual programs on objective outcomes, such as waist circumference, weight, blood pressure, serum lipid levels and pain [ 25 , 28 ], indicate that the effect of mHeath on health-related outcomes is more real than can be justified by the Hawthorn phenomenon.…”

“…The results of the study by Kashfi et al (2021) [ 26 ] showed that an educational program on the WhatsApp platform improved the quality of life of postmenopausal women. However, a review study reported that the results of studies on the effect of virtual programs on sexual performance were contradictory [ 25 ]. Therefore, it is suggested that studies with a large sample size be repeated so that the impact of mhealth interventions on sexual performance and the quality of marital relationships can be assessed with more certainty.…”

“…In this regard, the use of modern methods, such as self-care training through applications, has received better reception due to its ease of use and time effectiveness [ 24 ]. On the other hand, postmenopausal women are among the fastest-growing population groups in the world, and virtual interventions have been welcomed as alternative ways for postmenopausal women to manage and cope with their symptoms [ 25 ]. The development of the mobile health (mHealth) platform to support women going through menopause is increasing around the world [ 7 ]; previous studies have confirmed the impact of mhealth on self-efficacy, quality of life, the severity of menopausal symptoms, and physical symptoms [ 25 – 28 ].…”

“…On the other hand, postmenopausal women are among the fastest-growing population groups in the world, and virtual interventions have been welcomed as alternative ways for postmenopausal women to manage and cope with their symptoms [ 25 ]. The development of the mobile health (mHealth) platform to support women going through menopause is increasing around the world [ 7 ]; previous studies have confirmed the impact of mhealth on self-efficacy, quality of life, the severity of menopausal symptoms, and physical symptoms [ 25 – 28 ]. Therefore, it seems very necessary to design mHealth-based programs in the national language to manage the symptoms of postmenopausal women.…”

Nurse-led virtual interventions in managing chronic diseases: a protocol for a systematic review of randomised controlled trials

“…Data synthesis of the intervention characteristics will be conducted using descriptive synthesis by summarising and tabulating the data and presenting them according to the research questions. Virtual care will be categorised by virtual care modalities: telephone, videoconferencing, store and forward, remote monitoring, websites and apps,24 and further differentiated into purely synchronous interactions, purely asynchronous, or combined synchronous and asynchronous interactions,1 and hybrid and standalone interventions 25. Synchronous delivery facilitates remote real-time feedback with both audio and visual cues available.…”