Requirement Analysis of mHealth app for Pregnancy Care and a Framework Suggestion for Evaluating Pregnancy Mobile Apps

Abstract

Background & Objective: There are a lot of apps for pregnancy care using mHealth technologies. However, it has not been studied which criteria in these apps are essential for increasing the quality of these mHealth programs in pregnant women. Thus this study aimed to review the desirable features of mobile-based pregnancy care applications and provide a model to evaluate existing applications.Materials & Methods: Features of a mobile-based pregnancy app were designed using a qualitative approach. In this research, an open questionnaire was developed. Obstetricians and gynecologists filled out this questionnaire. After thematic analysis of the questionnaires, the obtained items are embedded into a general framework for evaluation mHealth.Results: Fifteen gynecology and obstetrics experts participated in this study. Eight themes were obtained from 34 items mentioned by the experts. Finally, a specialized framework for evaluating mHealth apps for pregnancy care is proposed. Conclusion:To design mobile-based pregnancy care app and evaluate the existing apps in the field of pregnancy, the provided indicators can be used. This framework and other similar specialized frameworks could be developed to improve the quality of the mHealth apps.