The Development and Usability Assessment of an mHealth Application to Encourage Self-Care in Pregnant Women against COVID-19

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused serious concerns in pregnant women. Self-care mHealth applications can provide helpful guidelines for COVID-19 prevention or management in case of infection. This study aimed to develop and then assess a self-care smartphone-based application to provide self-care for pregnant women against COVID-19. The present study was conducted in two phases. First, a needs assessment was performed based on the opinions of 30 obstetricians and pregnant women. Then, relying on the results, a smartphone-based application was prototyped and assessed in terms of its usability and user satisfaction. To assess the application, 36 pregnant women (11 infected with COVID-19) were asked to use the application for a week. The QUIS questionnaire 5.5 was used for assessment, and the results were analyzed via descriptive statistics in SPSS 23. According to the obstetricians and pregnant women, of the 41 information requirements, 35 data elements were noted to be essential in the needs assessment. Features of the application were placed in four categories of User’s Profile, Lifestyle, Disease Management and Control, and Application Functions (e.g., introducing high-risk places in terms of COVID-19 prevalence in each city, introducing specialized COVID-19 medical centers to pregnant women to receive services, medication management, stress management and control, nutrition and diet management, sleep management, contacting physicians, doctor’s appointment reminder, searching the available educational materials, and making application adjustments such as text font, size, and color). With an average score of 7.94 (out of 9), pregnant women rated the application at a good level. The application can be used to reduce anxiety and stress about COVID-19 in mothers, provide access to reliable information to answer possible questions, identify high-risk locations, and provide pregnant women with instant access to healthcare facilities and information related to COVID-19 self-care processes.

To the Editors of the Journal of Fertility, Gynecology, and Andrology

“…Web-based prenatal and antenatal education classes are an appropriate response to the need to offer support to pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic (19). Appropriate mobile applications can be used to reduce anxiety related to COVID-19 in mothers, provide access to reliable information, and provide pregnant women with instant access to healthcare facilities and information related to COVID-19 self-care processes (20). Conclusion E-learning methodology has been recommended due to the importance of education and its role in patient care, shortage of specialist human resources in the education section, shortage of treatment personnel and their high workload, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, financial limitations, time-consumption of traditional ed-ucational programs, and features of E-learning including need-based learning, interest, cost-effectiveness, efficiency, accessibility, the possibility of watching videos anytime, lack of limitation in the number of times of watching videos, flexibility, appropriate design, learnercenteredness, and expandability.…”

Cognitive training using a mobile app as a coping tool against COVID-19 distress: A crossover randomized controlled trial

“…Fewer still have been shown to reduce COVID- 19 related distress ( e.g. , Gordon et al, 2021 ; Mira et al, 2020 ; Moulaei et al, 2021 ; Sun et al, 2021 ). One mobile mental health platform with relatively robust empirical support including 6 published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is GGtude ( Aboody et al, 2020 ; Akin-Sari et al, 2022 ; Ben-Zeev et al, 2021 ; Cerea et al, 2020 , Cerea et al, 2021 ; Roncero et al, 2019 ).…”

Analysis of requirements for developing a mobile device‐based medicines management application for people who are blind and visually impaired

“…15 Mobile phones are among these important technologies. 16,17 The factors of low price, small size, accessibility at any time and place, and ease of use have made mobile phones an attractive and practical tool. 18 People with visual impairments are increasingly using smart phones in their daily activities.…”

“…Technologies provide many capabilities to people with visual impairments and improve their quality of life 15 . Mobile phones are among these important technologies 16,17 . The factors of low price, small size, accessibility at any time and place, and ease of use have made mobile phones an attractive and practical tool 18 .…”