Development and validation of Baritrip: a multidisciplinary educational mobile application for bariatric surgery patients

Abstract

Objective: To develop and validate a comprehensive mobile health App (mHealth App) to increase the health literacy and care engagement of patients undergoing bariatric surgery.

Methods: App development required identifying patient needs, conducting a literature review, benchmarking, and designing the App through a multi-professional team. A prototype was created and validated by healthcare and information technology specialists, and patients undergoing bariatric surgery.

Results: The Baritrip App contained 188 screens divided into eight sections, covering clinical, surgical, nutritional, mental health, and speech therapy domains. The overall content validity index of the App as assessed by experts was 0.99. Bariatric surgery patients assessed the layout, language, content organization, and engagement of the App, with an overall agreement rate of 89.1%.

Conclusion: The Baritrip mobile health App showed good content validity and cultural appropriateness for bariatric surgery patients.