Practical self-management system for women with postnatal hypertension

Abstract

Abstract High blood pressure would present in postpartum women diagnosed with hypertension during their perinatal period. Few studies are available regarding the self-management of postnatal hypertension via the eHealth system. This study aimed to develop a self-management eHealth system for women with postnatal hypertension during the postpartum period. We applied this system on multi-platform, not only on web interface but also on the platform of varied smartphones. The proposed system possessed three novel features: (1) Population was limited to postnatal women with hypertension; (2) self-care record, which allowed the postnatal women to keep tracking their blood pressure, pulse, weight, medication record, exercise record, and risk factor assessment; and (3) through this system, nurse-midwife could keep track of postnatal women's health status maintaining the complete record and could communicate directly with the users if their health monitor values reach beyond normal range. A survey was conducted among the postnatal women to evaluate the usability and acceptance of the eHealth system. The results showed that the overall satisfaction rate of the system reached 94.9% suggesting that the system was helpful to the users.