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Mobile Phone Apps for the Prevention of Unintended Pregnancy: A Systematic Review and Content Analysis

BACKGROUND: Over 50% of pregnancies in the United States are unintended, meaning that the pregnancy is mistimed, unplanned, or unwanted. Unintended pregnancy increases health risks for mother and child, leads to high economic costs for society, and increases social disparities. Mobile phone ownershi...

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Autores principales: Mangone, Emily Rose, Lebrun, Victoria, Muessig, Kathryn E
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4738182/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26787311
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.4846
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author Mangone, Emily Rose
Lebrun, Victoria
Muessig, Kathryn E
author_facet Mangone, Emily Rose
Lebrun, Victoria
Muessig, Kathryn E
author_sort Mangone, Emily Rose
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Over 50% of pregnancies in the United States are unintended, meaning that the pregnancy is mistimed, unplanned, or unwanted. Unintended pregnancy increases health risks for mother and child, leads to high economic costs for society, and increases social disparities. Mobile phone ownership is rapidly increasing, providing opportunities to reach at-risk populations with reproductive health information and tailored unintended pregnancy prevention interventions through mobile phone apps. However, apps that offer support for unintended pregnancy prevention remain unevaluated. OBJECTIVE: To identify, describe, and evaluate mobile phone apps that purport to help users prevent unintended pregnancy. METHODS: We conducted an extensive search of the Apple iTunes and Android Google Play stores for apps that explicitly included or advertised pregnancy prevention or decision-making support in the context of fertility information/tracking, birth control reminders, contraceptive information, pregnancy decision-making, abortion information or counseling, sexual communication/negotiation, and pregnancy tests. We excluded apps that targeted medical professionals or that cost more than US $1.99. Eligible apps were downloaded and categorized by primary purpose. Data extraction was performed on a minimum of 143 attributes in 3 domains: (1) pregnancy prevention best practices, (2) contraceptive methods and clinical services, and (3) user interface. Apps were assigned points for their inclusion of features overall and for pregnancy prevention best practices and contraceptive information. RESULTS: Our search identified 6805 app descriptions in iTunes and Google Play. Of these, 218 unique apps met inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Apps were grouped into 9 categories: fertility trackers (n=72), centers and resources (n=38), birth control reminders (n=35), general sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information (n=17), SRH information targeted specifically to young adults (YA) (n=16), contraceptive information (n=15), service or condom locators (n=12), pregnancy tests (n=10), and games (n=3). Twelve apps scored at least 50 points (out of 94) for overall number of features and at least 15 points (out of 21) for contraceptive information and pregnancy prevention best practices. Overall, 41% of apps did not mention any modern contraceptive methods and 23% mentioned only 1 method. Of apps that did mention a modern contraceptive method, fewer than 50% of these apps provided information on how to use it. YA SRH apps had the highest percentage of pregnancy prevention best practices in each app. Demographic and interface evaluation found that most apps (72%) did not target any race and only 10% explicitly targeted youth. Communication interface features were present in fewer than 50% of apps. CONCLUSIONS: This review identified several useful, evidence-based apps that support the prevention of unintended pregnancy. However, most apps miss opportunities to provide users with valuable information, interactive decision aids, and evidence-based interventions for unintended pregnancy prevention. Further, some apps in this space may increase the likelihood of unintended pregnancy due to the low effectiveness of the contraceptive methods promoted.
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spelling pubmed-47381822016-02-16 Mobile Phone Apps for the Prevention of Unintended Pregnancy: A Systematic Review and Content Analysis Mangone, Emily Rose Lebrun, Victoria Muessig, Kathryn E JMIR Mhealth Uhealth Original Paper BACKGROUND: Over 50% of pregnancies in the United States are unintended, meaning that the pregnancy is mistimed, unplanned, or unwanted. Unintended pregnancy increases health risks for mother and child, leads to high economic costs for society, and increases social disparities. Mobile phone ownership is rapidly increasing, providing opportunities to reach at-risk populations with reproductive health information and tailored unintended pregnancy prevention interventions through mobile phone apps. However, apps that offer support for unintended pregnancy prevention remain unevaluated. OBJECTIVE: To identify, describe, and evaluate mobile phone apps that purport to help users prevent unintended pregnancy. METHODS: We conducted an extensive search of the Apple iTunes and Android Google Play stores for apps that explicitly included or advertised pregnancy prevention or decision-making support in the context of fertility information/tracking, birth control reminders, contraceptive information, pregnancy decision-making, abortion information or counseling, sexual communication/negotiation, and pregnancy tests. We excluded apps that targeted medical professionals or that cost more than US $1.99. Eligible apps were downloaded and categorized by primary purpose. Data extraction was performed on a minimum of 143 attributes in 3 domains: (1) pregnancy prevention best practices, (2) contraceptive methods and clinical services, and (3) user interface. Apps were assigned points for their inclusion of features overall and for pregnancy prevention best practices and contraceptive information. RESULTS: Our search identified 6805 app descriptions in iTunes and Google Play. Of these, 218 unique apps met inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Apps were grouped into 9 categories: fertility trackers (n=72), centers and resources (n=38), birth control reminders (n=35), general sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information (n=17), SRH information targeted specifically to young adults (YA) (n=16), contraceptive information (n=15), service or condom locators (n=12), pregnancy tests (n=10), and games (n=3). Twelve apps scored at least 50 points (out of 94) for overall number of features and at least 15 points (out of 21) for contraceptive information and pregnancy prevention best practices. Overall, 41% of apps did not mention any modern contraceptive methods and 23% mentioned only 1 method. Of apps that did mention a modern contraceptive method, fewer than 50% of these apps provided information on how to use it. YA SRH apps had the highest percentage of pregnancy prevention best practices in each app. Demographic and interface evaluation found that most apps (72%) did not target any race and only 10% explicitly targeted youth. Communication interface features were present in fewer than 50% of apps. CONCLUSIONS: This review identified several useful, evidence-based apps that support the prevention of unintended pregnancy. However, most apps miss opportunities to provide users with valuable information, interactive decision aids, and evidence-based interventions for unintended pregnancy prevention. Further, some apps in this space may increase the likelihood of unintended pregnancy due to the low effectiveness of the contraceptive methods promoted. JMIR Publications Inc. 2016-01-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4738182/ /pubmed/26787311 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.4846 Text en ©Emily Rose Mangone, Victoria Lebrun, Kathryn E. Muessig. Originally published in JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 19.01.2016. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR mhealth and uhealth, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://mhealth.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Mangone, Emily Rose
Lebrun, Victoria
Muessig, Kathryn E
Mobile Phone Apps for the Prevention of Unintended Pregnancy: A Systematic Review and Content Analysis
title Mobile Phone Apps for the Prevention of Unintended Pregnancy: A Systematic Review and Content Analysis
title_full Mobile Phone Apps for the Prevention of Unintended Pregnancy: A Systematic Review and Content Analysis
title_fullStr Mobile Phone Apps for the Prevention of Unintended Pregnancy: A Systematic Review and Content Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Mobile Phone Apps for the Prevention of Unintended Pregnancy: A Systematic Review and Content Analysis
title_short Mobile Phone Apps for the Prevention of Unintended Pregnancy: A Systematic Review and Content Analysis
title_sort mobile phone apps for the prevention of unintended pregnancy: a systematic review and content analysis
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4738182/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26787311
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.4846
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