Telehealth-delivered physical activity interventions provided by maternal healthcare services influence postpartum women’s engagement in physical activity: a systematic review

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The benefits of physical activity in the postpartum population are well documented, and regarded as being vitally important to the recovery process. Psychological health, musculoskeletal conditions, cardiorespiratory fitness and weight retention are among the postpartum health issues that physical activity can positively influence. Although international guidelines for physical activity postpartum have been published, there is a lack of current research into the effectiveness of, and patient compliance with, physical activity programmes in this population. Physiotherapists are well placed to deliver physical activity interventions for these women because of the multidisciplinary maternal healthcare services that are provided for them. The focus of this paper is to examine the available evidence regarding how the delivery and accessibility of physical activity programmes have changed with the exponential growth of telehealth. A detailed systematic literature search limited to randomized controlled trials published in English was performed for the period from 2014 to 2022. Four relevant publications were identified that utilized an element of telehealth physical activity in the postpartum population, although the timescale and definition of postpartum was not standardized across the papers. The findings of this literature review indicate that there is tentative support for the use of remote intervention as a means of improving physical activity in postpartum patients. The literature does not provide a consensus on the most appropriate length, type or duration of telehealth-delivered postpartum physical activity intervention for this population. There is a need for future high-quality research to investigate the effect of remote physical activity delivery on cost-effectiveness and patient satisfaction.