The N.1 Institute for Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
The Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
JMIR Hum Factors. 2024 Oct 1;11:e59269. doi: 10.2196/59269.
Maternal and child health outcomes are positively influenced by early intervention, and digital health (DH) tools provide the potential for a low-cost and scalable solution such as informational platforms or digital tracking tools. Despite the wide availability of DH tools out there for women from before to after pregnancy, user engagement remains low.
This study aims to explore the factors that shape women's DH adoption and sustained use across the maternal journey from preconception to postbirth, to improve user engagement with DH tools.
One-hour semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 44 women from before to after pregnancy (age range 21-40 years) about their experiences with DH. This study is part of a larger study on women's maternal experiences with health care and DH and focuses on the factors that affected women's DH adoption and sustained use. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis.
Five main themes and 10 subthemes were identified that affected women's adoption and sustained use of DH tools. These included themes on their preexisting attitudes to DH, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived credibility, and perceived value of the tool.
The themes that emerged were fully or partially mapped according to the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 model. The applicability of the model and the need to consider specific cultural nuances in the Asian context (such as the importance of trust and social influence) are discussed. The interaction of the 5 themes with DH adoption and sustained use are explored with different themes being relevant at various points of the DH adoption journey. The insights gained serve to inform future DH design and implementation of tools for women to optimize their DH engagement and the benefits they derive from it.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05099900; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05099900.
母婴健康结果受到早期干预的积极影响，而数字健康 (DH) 工具为信息平台或数字跟踪工具等低成本和可扩展的解决方案提供了潜力。尽管在女性怀孕前后有广泛的 DH 工具可供使用，但用户参与度仍然很低。
本研究旨在探索影响女性在从受孕前到产后整个母性旅程中采用和持续使用 DH 工具的因素，以提高 DH 工具的用户参与度。
对 44 名从怀孕前到产后的女性（年龄在 21-40 岁之间）进行了 1 小时的半结构化定性访谈，了解她们使用 DH 的经验。本研究是一项关于女性在医疗保健和 DH 方面的母性体验的更大研究的一部分，重点关注影响女性采用和持续使用 DH 工具的因素。访谈进行了录音，逐字转录，并使用归纳主题分析进行了分析。
确定了五个主要主题和十个子主题，这些主题影响了女性对 DH 工具的采用和持续使用。这些主题包括她们对 DH 的预先存在的态度、感知易用性、感知有用性、感知可信度和工具的感知价值。
根据统一接受和使用技术 2 模型，出现的主题被全部或部分映射。讨论了该模型的适用性以及在亚洲背景下考虑特定文化细微差别的必要性（例如信任和社会影响的重要性）。五个主题与 DH 采用和持续使用的相互作用在 DH 采用旅程的不同阶段探讨了不同主题的相关性。获得的见解有助于为未来的 DH 设计和工具实施提供信息，以优化女性的 DH 参与度及其从中获得的收益。
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05099900；https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05099900。
