A scoping review on health behavior changes in women toward preconception care

• Published in: Journal of Japan Academy of Midwifery Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 162 - 175
• Main Authors: SUZUKI, Hitomi, SHOKI, Rina, ARATA, Naoko, OTA, Erika
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: Japan Academy of Midwifery 2022
• Subjects: behavior change; health behavior; preconception care; scoping review
• ISSN: 0917-6357; 1882-4307
• DOI: 10.3418/jjam.JJAM-2021-0041

PurposeThe 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.MethodsPubMed, 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.ResultsFrom 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.ConclusionThis 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.