Researcher, Department of Work and Social Psychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands. Correspondence:
Researcher, Department of Midwifery Science, AVAG, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Sex Reprod Health Matters. 2023 Dec;31(1):2236782. doi: 10.1080/26410397.2023.2236782.
Antenatal care is essential to promote maternal health. Prior research has focused on barriers women face to attending antenatal care, and improving quality of care is seen as a precondition for better attendance. Digital health tools are seen as a promising instrument to increase the quality of healthcare. It is less clear to what extent the use of digital health tools in low- and middle-income counties would be perceived as beneficial by end-users. The aim of this research was to explore women's experiences with antenatal care, and whether digital health tools would change their perceptions of quality of care. This qualitative research utilised an interpretative phenomenological approach on data from semi-structured in-depth interviews collected in 2016 with 19 randomly selected pregnant women from six different dispensaries in Magu District. Findings showed that pregnant women are motivated to attend antenatal care and are grateful for the services received. However, they also articulated a need for improvements in antenatal care services such as the availability of diagnostic tests and more interactions with healthcare workers. Participants indicated that a digital health tool could help in storing patient files and improving communication with health workers. Our results indicate that pregnant women are positive about the use of digital health tools during antenatal care but that the implementation of such a tool should be implemented in parallel to structural service delivery improvements, such as testing availability.
产前护理对于促进产妇健康至关重要。先前的研究主要集中在妇女在接受产前护理方面所面临的障碍上，提高护理质量被视为改善出勤率的前提。数字健康工具被视为提高医疗保健质量的有前途手段。在低中等收入国家，数字健康工具的使用在多大程度上会被最终用户视为有益，这一点还不太清楚。本研究旨在探讨妇女对产前护理的体验，以及数字健康工具是否会改变她们对护理质量的看法。这项定性研究采用解释现象学方法，对 2016 年在马古区六家不同诊所随机抽取的 19 名孕妇进行半结构深入访谈收集的数据进行了分析。研究结果表明，孕妇有参加产前护理的积极性，并对所获得的服务表示感谢。然而，她们也表达了对产前护理服务的改进需求，例如提供诊断测试和与医护人员更多的互动。参与者表示，数字健康工具可以帮助存储患者档案并改善与医护人员的沟通。我们的研究结果表明，孕妇对产前护理中使用数字健康工具持积极态度，但此类工具的实施应与结构性服务提供的改善同时进行，例如检测的可获得性。
