From Design to Development to Evaluation of a Pregnancy App for Low-Income Women in a Community-Based Setting

Due to the increasing rates of mobile phone adoption in low-income communities in the United States, mobile apps can be used to increase access to prenatal care in this population. But, design and evaluation studies in this area are rare. Using existing guidelines and needs assessment results, we developed, MomLink, that aligned with the needs of the target population and their community health workers. Nine women from a low-income community evaluated the app and provided suggestions to improve its design. After making suggested changes, we deployed MomLink and its corresponding provider app for a pre-pilot evaluation. The evaluation met an unexpected barrier resulting in low usage of the system by both women and providers. Based on our findings, we discuss opportunities to improve mHealth apps for the target population and better ways to collaborate with community-based partners.