Use of podcasts for health education: a scoping review.
Fabiola Leticia Damascena Amador, Gabriele Cardoso Gonçalves Alves, Vagner Rogério Dos Santos and 1 others
PMID 38511787WHAT IT FOUND
Evidence from 11 studies of podcasts used to teach adults and older people health topics is limited and mixed.
Some studies reported satisfaction or behavior changes, but weight and pregnancy outcomes often did not differ.
Key findings
01The review screened 1,517 records and included 11 studies about podcasts for health education of adults and older people.
02In the included obesity studies, one reported healthy changes in 91% of listeners, while another reported no difference in weight loss, food intake monitoring, or physical activity at 6 months.
03The review authors reported that included studies had small, non-diverse samples, which prevents generalization of the findings.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is a scoping review, so it maps available evidence rather than testing whether podcasts work. Only 11 studies were included after screening 1,517 records, and the studies differed in design, population, podcast content, and outcome measures. The included studies were reported to have small samples, limited demographic diversity, and risk of bias, which makes the findings hard to generalize. The review searched studies published from 2004 to 2022 in English, Portuguese, or Spanish, and its conclusions may not include research published after the cut-off. The paper's eligibility text is unclear because it lists reviews as included evidence sources but also says reviews were excluded, while the included study table contains state-of-the-art and integrative reviews.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that podcasts are an effective patient education method. The review included only 11 heterogeneous studies, and several key outcomes, including weight loss and appropriate pregnancy weight gain, did not differ between groups.