Babu Suhas, Park Nicolas, Woodland Gracie, Garcia Nydia, Page Walter, Page Robin
College of Nursing, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Bryan, TX, USA.
College of Arts and Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
Digit Health. 2024 Sep 27;10:20552076241285422. doi: 10.1177/20552076241285422. eCollection 2024 Jan-Dec.
This study sought to understand the current experiences and subsequent needs of digital maternal health application users based on an interdisciplinary analysis of features currently available in the digital marketplace (including mobile applications and mobile-friendly websites).
Following secondary analysis of previously collected interview and focus group data, we used qualitative thematic analysis to observe recurring themes within current maternal health applications and prospective augmentation of related technology for future development.
Study findings suggested tailored features would best serve the target population, and eleven unique themes comprising additions and improvements to maternal health applications emerged. These included seven major areas: improved mental health support, need for forums and support groups, lack of lactation and breastfeeding support, lack of quality food and nutrition access and product finders, minimal financial literacy information, tailored culturally competent information, and need for localized information and resources. Findings also suggested four main improvements for digital offerings in the current maternal health space: increased emphasis on resources available for postpartum care, importance of minimizing the number of hubs used, need for making information more digestible by ensuring it is written, edited, and provided at appropriate reading levels by more coordinated interaction of words and graphics, and ensuring the trust and credibility of such applications.
Maternal health applications are improving; however, more features can be added in a localized manner. Additional improvements could be made to current offerings, maximizing the utility of applications, especially in hard-to-reach areas such as maternity care deserts. With the advent of artificial intelligence, developers are poised with the ability to make platforms more focused and tailored for their users.
本研究旨在通过对数字市场中现有功能（包括移动应用程序和适合移动设备浏览的网站）进行跨学科分析，了解数字孕产妇健康应用程序用户当前的体验及后续需求。
在对先前收集的访谈和焦点小组数据进行二次分析之后，我们采用定性主题分析方法，观察当前孕产妇健康应用程序中反复出现的主题以及相关技术在未来发展中的预期增强功能。
研究结果表明，量身定制的功能最能满足目标人群的需求，并且出现了11个独特的主题，包括对孕产妇健康应用程序的补充和改进。这些主题涵盖七个主要领域：改善心理健康支持、需要论坛和支持小组、缺乏泌乳和母乳喂养支持、缺乏优质食品和营养获取途径及产品查找工具、基本金融知识信息匮乏、量身定制具有文化胜任力的信息、需要本地化信息和资源。研究结果还表明，当前孕产妇健康领域的数字产品有四项主要改进方向：更加强调产后护理可用资源、尽量减少所使用的中心数量的重要性、通过确保信息由文字和图形更协调地交互编写、编辑并以适当的阅读水平提供，使信息更易于理解，以及确保此类应用程序的可信度。
孕产妇健康应用程序正在不断改进；然而，可以以本地化方式添加更多功能。当前的产品还可以进一步改进，以最大限度地提高应用程序的效用，特别是在诸如孕产妇护理荒漠等难以覆盖的地区。随着人工智能的出现，开发人员有能力使平台更专注于用户并为其量身定制。
