Background: Health-related mobile applications (apps) have the potential to improve health knowledge and promote healthy behaviours during pregnancy. Pregnancy apps are popular and extensively used by consumers.
Objective: This study investigates the usage patterns, decision-making criteria and concerns regarding the quality and credibility of health-related information within pregnancy mobile applications. The aim of this study is to understand consumer perspectives to potentially contribute to guidelines for apps containing health-related information.
Design: A cross-sectional study, utilising an online questionnaire for data collection.
Methods: The study surveyed pregnant women in Australia who were recruited via online platforms, including social media and paid Facebook ads. Participants completed a 29-item questionnaire assessing their use of pregnancy apps, sources of health information and perceptions of app quality and safety, with data collected and analysed using the Qualtrics platform and SPSS Statistics.
Results: The survey was survey completed by 427 current-or-recently pregnant individuals, aged 18 or over and located in Australia. Overall, 62.3% were currently pregnant and 37.7% were recently pregnant, within 6 months. Medical practitioners were the primary source of pregnancy-related health information, and pregnancy apps were the third most common source. Pregnancy apps were considered to be a trustworthy source of information by 63.8% of respondents and the majority used apps during pregnancy (94.2%). Of those who used pregnancy apps (n = 325), information being safe and trustworthy was their top priority when selecting an app. However, 35.5% (n = 115) had encountered information in an app they felt was unsafe or conflicted with previous knowledge or advice. Only 4.6% (n = 15) were aware that health-related apps are not screened for accurate information/undergo quality assurance checks before being made available to download. If provided with a guide to evaluate app quality, 74.6% (n = 241) would utilise the tool.
Conclusions: These findings highlight a need to promote the critical assessment of health information within pregnancy apps and to develop resources to support consumers in doing so.
Keywords: digital health; health literacy; mobile phone; pregnancy; smartphone apps.