Rating Pregnancy Wheel Applications Using the APPLICATIONS Scoring System [322]

Chyjek, Kathy; Farag, Sara; Chen, Katherine Tsia-Huey

doi:10.1097/01.aog.0000463631.13544.88

Cited by 2 publications

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Mobile Health Apps for Pregnant Women: Systematic Search, Evaluation, and Analysis of Features

Frid¹,

Bogaert²,

Chen³

2021

J Med Internet Res

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Background Many pregnant women use the internet to obtain information about pregnancy and childbirth. Over 50% of pregnant women use pregnancy apps and must search through thousands of pregnancy or women’s health–related apps available on app stores. The COVID-19 pandemic is changing how women receive prenatal care. Mobile health apps may help maintain women’s satisfaction with their prenatal care. Objective Our objective is to identify pregnancy mobile apps and to evaluate the apps using a modified APPLICATIONS (app comprehensiveness, price, privacy, literature used, in-app purchases, connectivity, advertisements, text search field, images/videos, other special features, navigation ease, subjective presentation) scoring system. Methods A list of pregnancy apps was identified in the first 20 Google search results using the search term “pregnancy app.” After excluding irrelevant, inaccurate, malfunctioning, or no longer available apps, all unique apps were downloaded and evaluated with the modified APPLICATIONS scoring system, which includes both objective and subjective criteria and evaluation of special features. Results A list of 57 unique pregnancy apps was generated. After 28 apps were excluded, the remaining 29 apps were evaluated, with a mean score of 9.4 points out of a maximum of 16. The highest scoring app scored 15 points. Over 60% (18/29) of apps did not have comprehensive information for every stage of pregnancy or did not contain all four desired components of pregnancy apps: health promotion/patient education, communication, health tracking, and notifications and reminders. Only 24% (7/29) of apps included a text search field, and only 28% (8/29) of apps cited literature. Conclusions Our search yielded many high-scoring apps, but few contained all desired components and features. This list of identified and rated apps can lessen the burden on pregnant women and providers to find available apps on their own. Although health care providers should continue to vet apps before recommending them to patients, these findings also highlight that a Google search is a successful way for patients and providers to find useful and comprehensive pregnancy apps.

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Mobile Health Apps for Pregnant Women: Systematic Search, Evaluation, and Analysis of Features

Frid¹,

Bogaert²,

Chen³

2021

J Med Internet Res

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Mobile Health Apps for Pregnant Women: Systematic Search, Evaluation, and Analysis of Features (Preprint)

Frid¹,

Bogaert²,

Chen³

2020

Preprint

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BACKGROUND Many pregnant women use the internet to obtain information about pregnancy and childbirth. Over 50% of pregnant women use pregnancy applications (apps) and must search through thousands of pregnancy or women’s health-related apps available on app stores. COVID-19 is changing how women receive prenatal care and their satisfaction with it, leading them to rely more on other sources of information. OBJECTIVE Our objective is to identify mobile apps recommended when a Google search is performed and to evaluate the apps’ features using a modified APPLICATIONS scoring system. METHODS A list of pregnancy apps was identified in the first 20 Google search results using the search term “pregnancy app” and “pregnancy apps.” After excluding apps irrelevant to the study, all unique apps were downloaded and evaluated with the modified APPLICATION scoring system, which includes both objective and subjective criteria and evaluation of special features. RESULTS A total of 57 unique pregnancy apps were generated. 28 apps were excluded for irrelevance, inaccuracy, malfunctioning, or no longer available. 29 apps were evaluated, with a mean score of 9.4 points out of a maximum of 16. The highest scoring app scored 15 points. The top five highest scoring apps were all included in the first article in a Google search result and four of them were also the highest mentioned among all articles. CONCLUSIONS Identification of pregnancy apps through a Google search yielded high-scoring apps that were mentioned in multiple articles, yet few contain all the desired qualities. While healthcare providers should continue to vet apps before recommending them to patients, these findings highlight that a Google search is a successful way for patients and providers to find useful and comprehensive pregnancy applications.

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Rating Pregnancy Wheel Applications Using the APPLICATIONS Scoring System [322]

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Mobile Health Apps for Pregnant Women: Systematic Search, Evaluation, and Analysis of Features

Mobile Health Apps for Pregnant Women: Systematic Search, Evaluation, and Analysis of Features

Mobile Health Apps for Pregnant Women: Systematic Search, Evaluation, and Analysis of Features (Preprint)

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