Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Dec 20, 2024
Date Accepted: Jan 2, 2026
Evaluating A smartphone application to monitor blood pressure in normotensive pregnancies, high-risk pregnancies and women with preeclampsia: a prospective longitudinal feasibility study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Antenatal care has been crucial in reducing maternal mortality. Currently, screening program of pregnant women includes blood pressure measurements, urine protein-tests, and identification of risk factors, although these methods have low sensitivity and specificity.
Objective:
This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of contactless blood pressure monitoring, by the Anura™ smartphone application, in normotensive and high-risk pregnancies as well as women with preeclampsia, compared to conventional manual cuff measurements. A secondary objective was to assess women's experience using the Anura™ application.
Methods:
Three groups of pregnant women were recruited; normotensive pregnancies, high-risk pregnancies and women diagnosed with preeclampsia. They used the Anura™ smartphone application for a 30-seconds facial scan, alongside manually blood pressure measurements and answered a survey at gestational week 37-39, regarding their experience of using the Anura™ application
Results:
Analyses whether the Anura™ measurements and the manual measurements of diastolic and systolic blood pressure were significantly different for the three trimesters in each of the three groups, showed that the Anura™ application accurately measured blood pressure in women with normotensive pregnancies. It was also well accepted by the women. A high satisfaction with contactless measurement technology indicated a willingness to recommend its use in future home and clinical settings. However, the accuracy of the Anura™ application is not yet sufficiently reliable for use in a clinical setting for high-risk pregnancies and women diagnosed with preeclampsia. The results showed a significant difference between the first and third trimester (P=.001) in high-risk pregnancies when compared with manual BP monitoring. Measurements of blood pressure in women with preeclampsia also showed significant differences, both in 2nd and 3rd trimesters (P=.001).
Conclusions:
Future improvements of the application should focus on enhancing Anura™ blood pressure accuracy for all pregnant women.
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