Affiliation:
1. Department of Health Information Management, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran,Iran
2. Health Information Technology Department, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Saveh University of Medical Sciences, Saveh,Iran
3. Health Information Technology Department, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol,Iran
Abstract
Background:
Mobile applications and social media serve their users as convenient tools to
improve and monitor diseases and conditions such as pregnancy. These tools also exert a positive impact
on Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) self-management.
Introduction:
Despite the expansion of mobile health apps for the management of GDM, no study has
evaluated these apps using a valid tool. This study aimed to search and review the apps developed for
this purpose, providing overall and specific rating scores for each aspect of MARS.
Methods:
Two cases of app stores (IOS and Google Play) were searched in January 2019 for apps related
to GDM. Search keywords included “gestational diabetes”, “pregnant diabetes”, and “Health
apps”. Eligibility criteria include: capable of running on Android or IOS operating systems, in the English
language, especially for GDM, and available in Iran. After removal of duplicates, the apps were reviewed,
rated, and evaluated independently by two reviewers with Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS)
tools.
Results:
Initially, 102 apps were identified after the exclusion process, five selected apps were downloaded
and analyzed. All apps were classified into four categories according to contents and their interactive
capabilities. In most quadrants of MARS, the Pregnant with Diabetes app received the highest
scores. Also, in general, the maximum app quality mean score belonged to Pregnant with Diabetes (3.10
/ 5.00).
Conclusion:
Findings revealed that apps designed for GDM are small in number and poor in quality
based on MARS tools. Therefore, considering pregnant women’s need for using the capabilities of these
apps in pregnancy management and promoting community-based care, it seems essential to develop and
design a series of high-quality apps in all four specified categories (only giving comments, obtaining
data and giving comments, diagnosis of GDM, and diet calculator).
Publisher
Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.
Subject
Endocrinology,Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Cited by
21 articles.
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