Development and validation of an e-health module – PregEx to support antenatal exercise and education

Abstract

Background. Pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood are major life phases in a woman’s life. During these phases, not only do women experience physiological changes but they are also adjusting to their new roles and responsibilities as mothers. The World Health Organization has declared that the benefits of e-health should be considered among the fundamental components of any strategy and most important programs for the collection of pregnancy healthcare information. Hence this study aimed to develop an e-health module to support antenatal exercise and education for pregnant women. Aim. To develop and validate an e-health module to support antenatal exercise and education. Methodology. The development of an e-health module was prepared using the structured antenatal exercise protocol. Face and content validation was done by expert opinion and feedback on the application was obtained. Feedback from the usability evaluation was used to revise the app. The application was named as PregEx. The developed application (PregEx) was validated among fifty antenatal mothers. They were instructed to follow up on antenatal exercises and education and were on follow-up for 2 weeks. Then the feedback on the mobile application was collected from the mothers using a mobile application rating scale (MARS). Results. The overall quality mean scores of the MARS scale was 4.08 ± 0.39. The ratings of MARS app specific responses had shown about 80% were on awareness creating, 90% were knowledge oriented, 71% of the mothers found this app as a help-seeking and satisfaction and about 67% felt it improves the mothers on behavior change. Conclusion. The mobile app (Preg Ex) was user-friendly and feasible for antenatal mothers to understand easily and practice antenatal exercise and education.