JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) affects up to 37% of adolescents. Without recognition, HMB can lead to other medical conditions resulting in diminished health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL). WeThrive, a new mobile health application (mHealth app), implements the pictorial bleeding assessment chart (PBAC) to identify HMB, and the adolescent menstrual bleeding questionnaire (aMBQ) to measure the effects of HMB on adolescents’ HRQoL. If HMB is identified, WeThrive will connect users to local clinics for further assessment of their menstrual bleeding with a healthcare provider.

Objective:

The objective of the study was to describe adolescents’ experiences using WeThrive App.

Methods:

This study was approved by the local Research Ethics Board in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and informed consent was provided by all participants. Individual semi-structured interviews were held via video conference with adolescents aged <18 years, who had at least one menstrual period and had used WeThrive at least once. Interview transcripts were thematically analyzed by two investigators independently; kappa statistic was calculated to determine the strength of correlation in themes.

Results:

Five adolescents, mean age 15.5 years (13-18 years), participated in the interviews. All participants stated that WeThrive helps them better understand their menstrual periods by predicting period onset, recognizing menstrual symptoms, and identifying HMB. Six themes were identified: (1) the importance of visual features, (2) usability (3) demand for the symptom tracker, (4) newly obtained knowledge using WeThrive, (5) feature use depends on menstrual health and (6) trustworthiness. There was substantial agreement on the identified themes (kappa=0.73).

Conclusions:

WeThrive is visually appealing, and trustworthy, and helps users better understand their menstrual periods, including identifying HMB. WeThrive is a useful tool to help adolescents better understand their menstrual periods.