Interventions to improve immigrant women's mental health: A systematic review

Aims: To identify the effectiveness of interventions for improving immigrant women's mental health and explore the role of these interventions in nursing practice.

Background: Immigrant women rearing children and living in a foreign country experience many mental health problems during pregnancy, child-rearing, and acculturation. Mental health problems can be controlled or modified through effective practices. Few studies have examined the role of different types of interventions in alleviating these mental health issues in immigrant women in the perinatal period, and it is unclear whether such interventions are effective.

Methods: This systematic review used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis checklist. Studies form December 1948-August 2021 were retrieved from four databases: MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library. This systematic review's protocol was registered at PROSPERO (CRD42020210845). The data were summarised using narrative analysis.

Results: Eight studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final analyses. There were few mental health improvement interventions for immigrant women. The interventions included home visit programmes, asset-building mental health interventions, cognitive-behavioural interventions, nursing interventions, perinatal education interventions, and mindfulness interventions. Home visit programmes and asset-building mental health interventions have reported positive outcomes in improving depressive symptoms and mental health.

Conclusions: There are few interventions for improving immigrant women's mental health. Most existing interventions are conducted through group education, but there are no explicit significant effects. Home visits may be an effective approach for conducting interventions to improve immigrant women's mental health. An effective nursing intervention should be developed, and more research is needed in improving immigrant women's mental health.

Relevance to clinical practice: This review provides evidence for nurses and midwives to practice appropriate and effective approaches and strategies for improving immigrant women's mental health. We suggest possible future interventions for this cohort of immigrant women in the perinatal period.