JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Background:

Pregnant women who continue working in physically demanding jobs often need to make adjustments to ensue a healthy pregnancy. However, this adjustment may not function as intended because the women might not know to what extent they should adjust their jobs. Therefore, we developed the Job Adjustment Mobile App based on these criteria for job adjustements. Pregnant women can input their job and physical condition details into the app, and based on these inputs, they can select individual action plans suggesting appropriate steps. A mobile app was used because it can respond to changes in jobs and physical conditions during the long-term course of pregnancy. However, it is crucial to evaluate concerns regarding its feasibility, usability, and potential adverse effects (which generally exist for all apps) associated with showing job criteria.

Objective:

Objective:

This study aimed to verify the feasibility and usability of the Job Adjustment Mobile App.

Methods:

Methods:

A longitudinal observational study was conducted in Japan. Pregnant women were allowed to use the app anytime from 12–34 weeks of gestation; they received reminder e-mails every 2 weeks encouraging app usage. A questionnaire was administered before app use and at 20 and 32 weeks of gestation. Feasibility was evaluated across four domains: implementation, demand, acceptability, and adverse events. Implementation was evaluated based on three parameters: drop-out rate, initial reminder e-mail receipt rate, and adherence rate (measured as pregnant women who used the app at intervals of 2.5 weeks or less). Demand was measured by use/login intervals, and participants answered 15 questions to assess acceptability. Adverse events were assessed by analyzing the degree of anxiety related to work and the frequency of pregnancy and delivery abnormalities. Demographic data were analyzed to determine any statistically significant differences in app usage intervals. Usability was evaluated using the System Usability Scale.

Results:

Results:

The analysis included 66 pregnant women, and 60.6% of them were multipara. The drop-out rate, adherence rate, and initial reminder e-mail receipt rate was 18.3%, 78.8%, and 43.9%, respectively. The median use/login interval (25–75 percentile) was 2.94 (2.00–5.13) weeks and 2.28 (1.81–4.00) weeks. Overall, 60.3–89.7% of the participants responded positively to all 15 questions assessing acceptability, and no adverse events were observed. The mean System Usability Scale score was 66.1 points. Multipara women had significantly longer app usage intervals (P=.01).

Conclusions:

Conclusions:

The results demonstrated acceptable levels of feasibility and usability of the app. However, the low adherence rates, especially among multipara women, suggest the need for modifications to reduce the time burden for app usage and to motivate multipara users. Further research should explore more effective and acceptable usage intervals and timing, involving a larger sample and accounting for diverse characteristics of pregnant women. Clinical Trial: UMIN Clinical Trials Registry UMIN000042943; https://center6.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr_e/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000049022