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Record W4408912701 · doi:10.1101/2025.03.25.25324432

The health beliefs, attitudes, and intentions of males toward pregnancy planning and preconception health and care: a systematic review

2025· preprint· en· W4408912701 on OpenAlexaboutno aff
Tristan Carter, Danielle Schoenaker, Jon Adams, Amie Steel

Bibliographic record

VenuemedRxiv · 2025
Typepreprint
Languageen
FieldSocial Sciences
TopicGender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
Canadian institutionsnot available
Fundersnot available
KeywordsPregnancyPsychologyHealth careMedicineEnvironmental healthPolitical science

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

Abstract Introduction The preconception period is an opportunity to address health-related behaviours to optimise pregnancy and child health outcomes. However, preconception health research and practice are primarily focused on females while similar attention on males remains underdeveloped. To address evidence gaps and inform effective paternal preconception health support, the aim of this systematic review was to identify the health beliefs, attitudes, and intentions of males toward pregnancy planning and preconception health and care. Methods A literature search was conducted in seven databases: Medline, Embase, PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science to identify original research regarding pregnancy planning or preconception health beliefs, attitudes, and/or intentions among generally healthy adult males. Methodological rigour of included studies was assessed using the Newcastle Ottawa Scale (NOS) and the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) Qualitative Studies checklist. Results Nine studies were included; cross sectional studies (n=6); a qualitative exploratory case study (n=1); a mixed method study (n=1) and a study incorporating qualitative and quantitative surveys (n=1). Analysis identified three broad themes: 1) Importance of Preconception Health and Care ; 2) Paternal Preconception Behaviours ; and 3) Inequalities in Preconception Health and Preconception Ca . re Findings reveal 1) Many males did not attend a preconception care consultation and believed it was not needed, or they already knew enough about a healthy pregnancy. 2) Males often agreed that smoking and alcohol consumption can affect the quality of their sperm and sometimes agreed it is important to consume a healthy preconception diet and to be physically active to achieve a healthy weight before conception. 3) For many males, there was a tendency to direct a greater level of responsibility to the female than to themselves regarding preconception health. African American males can feel marginalised. Conclusion Males do not always opt for a preconception consultation and many believe they are adequately prepared for a healthy pregnancy. Further, many males place a greater level of responsibility for planning and preparing for pregnancy on their partners rather than themselves. Further research focused upon male experiences and perspectives around preconception health is needed to inform targeted preconception health education, policy and care.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.010
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.048
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Systematic review · Consensus signal: Systematic review
GenreCandidate signal: Review · Consensus signal: Review
Teacher disagreement score0.015
Threshold uncertainty score0.050

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0100.048
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0010.001
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0060.005
Bibliometrics0.0080.010
Science and technology studies0.0010.001
Scholarly communication0.0030.002
Open science0.0020.001
Research integrity0.0020.001
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0030.000

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.057
GPT teacher head0.364
Teacher spread0.308 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designSystematic review
Domainnot available
GenreReview

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations1
Published2025
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

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