Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Apr 27, 2024
Date Accepted: Jun 17, 2024
“An mHealth app development by experts for queer individual’s sexual-reproductive healthcare services and needs: A nominal group technique”.
ABSTRACT
Background:
Most healthcare providers (HCPs) still lack understanding, knowledge, skills, and expertise for providing and sensitizing the sexual-reproductive healthcare services and needs (SRHSN) of queer individuals. Queer individuals continue to be the marginalized group in South Africa. Queer individuals experience various healthcare challenges such as stigma, discrimination, prejudice, harassment, humiliation, mental health issues like suicide and depression, an increased spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and sexual transmitted illnesses (STIs). Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) have a potential in closing the healthcare gaps experienced by both healthcare providers (HCPs) when managing queer individuals and for queer individuals when accessing their sexual-reproductive healthcare services and needs (SRHSN), thus ensuring inclusivity and promotion of health well-being.
Objective:
This study aimed to identify important contents to be included in the development of a mHealth app for addressing SRHSN’s queer individuals.
Methods:
We invited a group of experts from different fields like researchers, queer activists, sexual and reproductive health, innovation, and private healthcare stakeholders to take part in a face-to-face nominal group technique (NGT) which lasted approximately two hours, forty-six minutes, and fifty-five seconds. NGT steps were followed and applied in the meeting for experts to reach consensus on a question: which contents should be included in the mHealth app for addressing SRHSN for queer individuals?
Results:
A successful consensus was reached by 13 experts regarding the contents that should be included in the mHealth app. Overall, experts voted and ranked the following main icons; menu options (66 points), privacy and security, (39 points), user engagement (27 points), information hub (26 points), users demographics (20 points), connectivity (16 points), service integration and partnerships (10), functionalities (10 points), and accessibility and inclusivity (07 points).
Conclusions:
Conducting NGT with experts from different fields with a vast skill set, knowledge, and expertise enabled us to have targeted data on the development of mHealth app to address SRHSN for queer individuals. This approach emphasised the usefulness of a multi-disciplinary perspective to inform the development of our mHealth app and showed the future need of continuity in using this approach for other healthcare digital healthcare innovations and interventions. Clinical Trial: Not applicable
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Copyright
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