Mobile health applications for postnatal care: Review and analysis of functionalities and technical features

Sardi, Lamyae; Idri, Ali; Redman, Leanne M.; Alami, Hassan El; Bezad, R.; Fernández-Alemán, José Luis

doi:10.1016/j.cmpb.2019.105114

Cited by 45 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The analysis of the information, functionalities, and technical features of the apps was performed between September 1, 2020, and November 16, 2020, according to a 71-item assessment questionnaire investigating the desirable criteria of apps, developed based on the scientific literature [ 16 ], and multiprofessional discussion and agreement ( Table 1 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gaps and Future Challenges of Italian Apps for Pregnancy and Postnatal Care: Systematic Search on App Stores

Brunelli¹,

Vita²,

Cenedese³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

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Background Despite the availability of thousands of health apps worldwide, when considering those addressing children’s first 1000 days of life, most apps fail to consider the continuity between the prenatal and postnatal stages, and their joint impact on maternal and child health. The reliability, quality, and effectiveness of these apps are largely unknown, and the provided content seems questionable in terms of completeness, updating, and trustworthiness. Objective This study evaluates available Italian pregnancy and postnatal care apps to highlight the main gaps to be overcome and the resulting future challenges to be met in this mobile health–related field. Methods A systematic search was conducted on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and basic information was collected for all identified apps. After deduplication and further selection based on the exclusion criteria, an in-depth analysis of each app was performed by two researchers independently. A 71-item six-domain questionnaire about the desirable features of apps was used to assess information, functionalities, and technical features, while the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) was employed for app quality evaluation. Results From an initial sample of 684 apps, 22 were deeply analyzed. Most apps did not fulfill the expectations, as just one achieved 50% of all desirable aspects. Postnatal care and counselling for both the mother and child was the least accomplished domain. Moreover, the quality of app information was generally rated more negatively than the quality of their functionality and esthetic features. The lacking aspects were information about methods for postpartum family planning and birth spacing (1/22, 5%) and immunization (2/22, 9%). Conclusions The identified gaps could serve as a basis for designing and implementing increasingly high-quality, targeted, and effective apps for pregnancy and postnatal health care, which provide comprehensive, reliable, and evidence-based information, as well as appropriate esthetic and functional characteristics, with relevant implications in terms of maternal and newborn health prevention and promotion.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gaps and Future Challenges of Italian Apps for Pregnancy and Postnatal Care: Systematic Search on App Stores

Brunelli¹,

Vita²,

Cenedese³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

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show abstract

“…There are also a few indicators from the perspective of user experience, but the evaluation is not comprehensive enough. Such as LamyaeSardi, AliIdri, etc., use privacy, security, usability, and internationalization as indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of mobile health applications for postpartum healthcare [29]. DianaJ.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where Should Mobile Health Application Providers Focus Their Goals?

Wang¹,

Du²,

Zhang³

2021

IJCIS

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In the context of "Internet +" medical treatment, mobile health applications provide services for people in a new way, making it possible for people to carry out health management anytime and anywhere. According to the survey data, the most powerful consumers in the field of mobile health applications are those aged 24 to 35. Thus, it is particularly important to study the preferences of young people for mobile health applications. Therefore, this study established a domain-adaptive mobile health application evaluation model based on users' experience, and used an interactive algorithm combining machine learning and Delphi method to calculate the weight distribution of evaluation factors. Compared with previous studies, the evaluation index based on user experience of youth group is established. On the one hand, we have a targeted understanding of the use characteristics of the youth group and subdivide the market of mobile health applications; on the other hand, we establish evaluation indexes based on user experience, which is more in line with the customer-oriented product service concept. At the same time, the mobile health application evaluation system established in this study adopts human-computer interaction, which can not only ensure efficiency, but also add expertise in the field to make the results more accurate.

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“…The results related to readiness and potential of mobile technologies were extremely high (almost all the rates were above 4.7 on the scale of 1–5), which proves the well-known truth—e-health has to go mobile rapidly [ 23 ]. Previous research conforms with these, particularly that related to the role and importance of mobile PHR [ 18 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Users’ feedback on the mobile app was quite positive with highly-rated features, ease of use, UI/UX, etc. Many of the existing solutions [ 1 , 2 , 23 , 40 ] were applied in experimental conditions and are based on closed commercial or custom made systems, which are not designed to be a part of a wider comprehensive medical IT ecosystem. The main advantage of the proposed app is that it is based on the well-established data model/ontology and integrates a comprehensive set of features found in the literature about pregnancy care apps [ 6 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The number of mobile health applications and services has been growing rapidly over the last 10 years, resulting in disruptive changes and transformations in health practices. Mobile technology appears to be promising in enhancing access and efficiency in providing healthcare [ 23 ]. Mobile health (mHealth) has great potential in addressing disruptive issues in healthcare, given the ubiquity of mobile devices around the world, as well as their omnipresence, availability, high reach and cost-effectiveness.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Designing an IT Ecosystem for Pregnancy Care Management Based on Pervasive Technologies

Bjelica

Despotović-Zrakić

et al. 2020

Healthcare

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Pregnancy care is a topic of interest for both academia and practitioners. Novel pervasive technologies and applications, such as mobile technologies, wearables and IoT, open a wide corpus of possibilities for fostering pregnancy care management, and reducing risks and problems, improving communication among stakeholders and society development. This article introduces a model of a pregnancy care IT ecosystem based on the integration of various services in a semantically enriched e-health ecosystem. As proof of concept, both the web and mobile applications that aim to help pregnant women and gynaecologists were designed and employed in a real environment. An evaluation of the developed ecosystem was performed on a sample of 500 pregnant women and 100 doctors. After pilot usage, a survey was used to collect the data from participants, and assess the acceptance of the developed system. Results show that quality, usability and usefulness are on a high level, and that both pregnant women and doctors are ready for more extensive use of the system. In addition, research findings imply that employing pervasive technologies could bring significant benefits to all the parties in pregnancy care systems.

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Mobile health applications for postnatal care: Review and analysis of functionalities and technical features

Cited by 45 publications

References 33 publications

Gaps and Future Challenges of Italian Apps for Pregnancy and Postnatal Care: Systematic Search on App Stores

Gaps and Future Challenges of Italian Apps for Pregnancy and Postnatal Care: Systematic Search on App Stores

Where Should Mobile Health Application Providers Focus Their Goals?

Designing an IT Ecosystem for Pregnancy Care Management Based on Pervasive Technologies

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