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

Author:

Moulaei Khadijeh1,Sheikhtaheri Abbas2ORCID,Ghafaripour Zahra3,Bahaadinbeigy Kambiz4ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Student Research Committee, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

2. Health Management and Economics Research Center, Health Management Research Institute, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3. School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4. Medical Informatics Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

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.

Funder

Kerman University of Medical Sciences

Publisher

Hindawi Limited

Subject

Health Informatics,Biomedical Engineering,Surgery,Biotechnology

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