. Mahboubeh Shirvanian-Dehkordi; . Firoozeh Zare-Farashbandi; . Rahele Samouei; . Rasool Nouri
Volume 12, Issue 9 , October 2022, , Pages 1-5
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The expansion of pregnancy‑related mobile applications has led to an increasein the usage of these applications by Iranian women, which has the potential to have a long‑termimpact ...
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BACKGROUND: The expansion of pregnancy‑related mobile applications has led to an increasein the usage of these applications by Iranian women, which has the potential to have a long‑termimpact on women’s pregnancy health and, as a result, community health. The goal of this researchwas to investigate the state of pregnancy‑related mobile applications in Iran.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a descriptive‑applied research approach which wasconducted in 2020. One hundred and fifty‑seven pregnancy apps from different Iranian mobile appmarkets were installed and were examined in terms of the resources used and their validity, subjectdistribution, participation of obstetricians in the app development, apps volume, rank acquired byusers and distribution of apps according to the developers. The relationship between the number ofresources used and user rankings was also tested.RESULTS: A total of 157 apps were categorized into 12 subject categories based on their content.Only 1.3% of the apps were developed with the participation of obstetricians. Only 5% of the appshad used reliable information resources. Furthermore, the number of resources referenced in thestudied apps did not have a significant relationship with star ratings (r = 0.03, P = 0.64), accordingto the Pearson correlation test.CONCLUSION: Iranian mobile applications in the field of pregnancy have grown significantly interms of quantity, subject diversity, and user acceptance; however, the credibility of the informationin these apps cannot be validated. This serves as a reminder to users to exercise caution whileusing such apps.
