Digital health interventions to support women with opioid use disorder: A scoping review

Digital health interventions have the potential to address barriers to care for women. To design effective digital health interventions that meet the needs of this population, a full assessment of the existing literature is required.

This scoping review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) Checklist. A total of four databases were searched: Medline (OVID), Embase, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and PsychInfo. Search terms were informed by a preliminary search and included synonyms for opioid use disorder, digital health, and women. Abstract screening and full text review was completed after reviewer calibration. Data extraction was carried out through data charting.

After removal of duplicates, 901 abstracts were screened; the full text of 26 manuscripts were reviewed. After full text review, 17 studies published between 2018 and 2023 were included in the scoping review. Types of digital health interventions and study designs varied widely, with a majority focused on the peripartum period (n=12). Of 11 studies focused on OUD treatment, only three reported outcomes related to MOUD utilization. Two studies described community engagement to inform the development or modification of interventions.

A variety of digital health interventions are currently being used to address OUD among women. Areas for future work include examining efficacy for MOUD utilization, incorporating community engagement into intervention development, providing support for OUD treatment and recovery in the late postpartum period and beyond, and the development of mobile health applications.