Exploring user experiences of the Mom2B mHealth research app during the perinatal period: qualitative study (Preprint)

Abstract

Use of mobile health applications to enable both clinical research and healthcare provision is promising and rapidly developing, however research on users’ perceptions and acceptability of such apps is limited. The Mom2B smartphone app was developed to enable the collection of objective, moment-by-moment behavioral data from smartphone sensors, in addition to survey and voice recording data, with the aim of predicting depressive symptoms in the perinatal period.

To explore the experiences and attitudes of Mom2B app users, particularly their acceptability of the app and concerns around providing data through a mobile application.

Semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted online in Swedish with 14 groups, and a total of 41 participants. Participants had been active users of the Mom2B app for at least six weeks, and included pregnant and postpartum women, both with and without depression symptomatology apparent in their last screening test. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, translated to English, and evaluated using inductive thematic analysis.

Four themes were elicited: acceptability of sharing data, motivators and incentives, barriers to task completion, and user experience. Participants also gave suggestions for the improvement of features and user experience. Overall, app-based digital phenotyping was evaluated as a feasible and acceptable method of conducting research that also allows participants to benefit from the data they share by being able to monitor their wellbeing.

The findings highlight the perceived duplexity of this app as an efficient and practical tool that facilitates engagement in research, as well as allows users to monitor their wellbeing and get both general and personalized information related to the perinatal period. Digital phenotyping apps should be trustworthy and accessible, and technical issues should be promptly addressed. The findings raise important considerations for the development of future mHealth research apps in cooperation with users.