Cell phone e-mail as a means to collect information on pregnancy and delivery: a pilot study in Japan.

BACKGROUND: The diffusion of cell phones is 91.9% in Japan. Especially, cell phone e-mail is now widely used as a media source in Japan. The authors of this research have been engaged in collecting basic data to establish a system for providing improved health information on pregnancy and delivery through cell phones for pregnant women and their family members. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we classified the trends of health information of pregnancy and delivery in which people desire to obtain through cell phone based on the characteristics of the information and, of each classification we revealed the generic characteristic (age, gender, gestational weeks and any other children), any social support, the types of cell phones or/and computers and their related use. METHODS: Anonymous questionnaires were distributed to the participants of delivery preparation workshops held at two places in the northern parts of Kyushu Area to collect data. The cell phone e-mail usage trends were measured by four-rated scales. To classify the characteristics of the information, a Principal Factor Analysis was conducted. To find out correlation between the information classified and the generic characteristics, Mann-Whitney's U-test was conducted. RESULTS: Out of two hundred and fifteen (215) respondents including 117 pregnant women and 98 husbands, 208 respondents possessed cell phones. Regarding the health information of pregnancy and delivery desired to obtain through cell phone e-mail, two factors, namely "medical information" and "non-medical information" have derived. Those who did not possess computers tended to use their cell phone e-mail to obtain both "medical information" (P = .002) and "non-medical information" (P = .02). While those who use cell phone e-mail almost everyday tended to use cell phone e-mail for obtaining "non-medical information" (P = .02). CONCLUSION: This study indicated that providing medical information and non-medical information through cell phone e-mail is an essential service, especially in Japan, where the diffusion of cell phones is far higher than that of computers.