The Health & Her App is Associated with Improved Symptom Outcomes Among 1,900 Menopausal Women

Abstract

Background: The Health & Her app provides menopausal women with a means of monitoring their symptoms, symptom triggers, and menstrual periods, and enables them to engage in a variety of digital activities designed to promote health and wellbeing. The aim of the present study was to examine whether sustained weekly engagement with the app is associated with improvements in menopausal symptoms. Methods: This quasi-experimental study used routinely collected data provided by 1,900 Health & Her app users across a 2-month period. Symptom change from baseline over a period of up to 2 months was the outcome measure. A linear mixed effects model explored whether app engagement was predictive of symptom changes. Secondary analyses explored whether app-usage factors such as total number of days spent logging symptoms, logging triggers, reporting menstrual periods, and using in-app activities were independently predictive of symptom reductions from baseline. Covariates included HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) use, hormonal contraceptive use, present comorbidities, age, and dietary supplement use. To examine which types of symptoms were associated with the largest changes in total symptom scores, symptom scores at baseline were evaluated and were split according to specific symptom domains (i.e., psychological, urogenital, vasomotor, and physical). Results: Findings demonstrated that greater engagement with the Health & Her app for 2-months was associated with greater reductions in symptoms over time. Moreover, daily use of in-app activities and logging symptoms and menstrual periods were each independently associated with symptom reductions. Of the four symptom domains assessed, reporting psychological symptoms at baseline were associated with the greatest reductions in total symptom scores. Conclusions: This study has demonstrated that greater weekly engagement with the app was associated with greater reductions in symptoms. It is recommended that women be made aware of menopause-specific apps, such as that provided by Health & Her, to support them to manage their symptoms.