Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan 10;20(2):1227.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021227.

Exploring the Needs and Expectations of Expectant and New Parents for an mHealth Application to Support the First 1000 Days of Life: Steps toward a Co-Design Approach

Laura Brunelli  1 , Sofia Bussolaro  1 , Raffaella Dobrina  2 , Chiara De Vita  3 , Elena Mazzolini  4 , Giuseppa Verardi  2 , Maura Degrassi  2 , Maria Piazza  2 , Andrea Cassone  2 , Anja Starec  3 , Giuseppe Ricci  1   5 , Sara Zanchiello  3 , Tamara Stampalija  1   6
Affiliations

Exploring the Needs and Expectations of Expectant and New Parents for an mHealth Application to Support the First 1000 Days of Life: Steps toward a Co-Design Approach

Laura Brunelli et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

To improve maternal and child health, it is essential to adhere to health-promoting and preventive measures. However, reliable information as well as effective tools are not easy to identify in this field. Our cross-sectional study investigated the needs and expectations of expectant and new mothers and fathers as potential primary users of a hypothetical application supporting the first 1000 days of life. Between May and August 2022, we recruited expectant and new parents by administering an 83-item 5-point Likert scale questionnaire related to the content, functionalities, and technical features of the hypothetical app. We stratified responses using sociodemographic characteristics and then performed ward hierarchical clustering. The 94 women and 69 men involved in our study generally agreed with the proposed content, but expressed low interest in certain app functionalities or features, including those related to the interaction mechanism and interactivity. Women were generally more demanding than men. Our findings, resulting from the engagement of end-users, may be useful for designers and technology providers to implement mHealth solutions that, in addition to conveying reliable information, are tailored to the needs and preferences of end-users in the first 1000 days of life.

Keywords: app; co-design; expectant parents; first 1000 days; mHealth; pregnancy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of the expectant and new parents’ opinions on the content, functionalities, and technical features of an app to support the first 1000 days of life, grouped by the six domains: pregnancy care and counselling (a), mother and child postnatal care and counselling (b), reminders and push notifications (c), notes and records (d), social support (e), and app technical features (f).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of responses of expectant and new parents by clusters for each domain presented as boxplots, with the horizontal line in the middle of the box representing the median, the bottom and top the box representing the 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively, and the minimum and maximum of the distribution represented with the upper and lower whiskers.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of primary user clusters, grouped by parental figure (a), family income (b), and family education (c).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Aagaard-Hansen J., Norris S.A., Maindal H.T., Hanson M., Fall C. What are the public health implications of the life course perspective? Glob. Health Action. 2019;12:1603491. doi: 10.1080/16549716.2019.1603491. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Indrio F., Dargenio V.N., Marchese F., Giardino I., Vural M., Carrasco-Sanz A., Pietrobelli A., Pettoello-Mantovani M. The Importance of Strengthening Mother and Child Health Services during the First 1000 Days of Life: The Foundation of Optimum Health, Growth and Development. J. Pediatr. 2022;245:254–256.E0. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.03.001. - DOI - PubMed
    1. UNICEF The First 1000 Days: A Singular Window of Opportunity. 2017. [(accessed on 26 August 2022)]. Available online: https://blogs.unicef.org/blog/first-1000-days-singular-opportunity/
    1. USAID Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy Technical Brief: Implementation Guidance for Ending Preventable Maternal & Child Deaths. 2015. [(accessed on 26 August 2022)]. Available online: http://www.thousanddays.org/about/
    1. Government of India Journey of The First 1000 Days Foundation for a Brighter Future. [(accessed on 26 August 2022)];2018 Available online: https://nhm.gov.in/images/pdf/programmes/RBSK/Resource_Documents/Journey....

Publication types