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other·obstetrics and gynecology, public health, pediatrics, clinical trial·PMC10065243

Development and pilot test of a smartphone app for midwifery care in Tanzania: A comparative cross-sectional study

PLOS ONE · 10 authors, 5 centres

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TL;DR

This mixed-methods pilot study evaluated a smartphone educational app for midwives in Tanzania.

Full summary

754 CHARS

Twenty-three midwives in the intervention group used the app, and their learning outcomes were measured via a mini-quiz and a women-centered care questionnaire. Two months post-intervention, 87.5% of midwives continued using the app, and their mean mini-quiz scores increased significantly from 6.9 to 8.4 points. Focus group discussions with 21 midwives indicated high satisfaction, citing comprehensive content and increased confidence. Among 207 pregnant women surveyed, the intervention group had significantly higher knowledge and home-based value scores than the control group. Limitations include the small sample size, non-randomized design, lack of allocation concealment, and potential bias from COVID-19 delaying control group data collection.

STUDY TYPE

other

SPECIALTY

obstetrics and gynecology

SUMMARISED BY

AI pipeline

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100% · A

ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10065243

Development and pilot test of a smartphone app for midwifery care in Tanzania: A comparative cross-sectional study

PLOS ONE

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ABSTRACT

To address Tanzania’s high maternal mortality ratio, it is crucial to increase women’s access to healthcare. To improve access, the quality of antenatal care needs to be improved. Therefore, we conducted a pilot study of a smartphone app for midwives and examined its potential effects on the learning outcomes of midwives and birth preparedness of pregnant women in Tanzania. This mixed-methods, pilot study provided an educational app for midwives in the intervention group, obtained data about the continuous use of the app, measured midwives’ learning outcomes, directed focus group discussions on the usability of the app, and conducted surveys among pregnant women about birth preparedness in the intervention and control groups to evaluate if midwives provided proper information to them. The control group received regular antenatal care and answered the same survey. Participants were 23 midwives who participated in the testing and provided learning outcome data. Twenty-one participated in focus group discussions. Results showed that 87.5% of midwives continued to study with the app two months post-intervention. A mini-quiz conducted after using the app showed a significant increase in mean scores (6.9 and 8.4 points, respectively) and a non-significant increase on the questionnaire on women-centered care (98.6 and 102.2 points, respectively). In the focus group discussions, all midwives expressed satisfaction with the app for several reasons, including comprehensive content, feelings of confidence, and reciprocal communication. There were 207 pregnant women included in the analysis. The intervention group had significantly higher knowledge scores and home-based value scores than did controls. The total scores and other subscales did not show statistical significance for group differences. The results indicate the potential impact of the midwifery education app when it is implemented on a larger scale, especially considering that the results show a potential effect on midwives’ learning outcomes.

CITATION EXPORT

Yoko Shimpuku, Beatrice Mwilike, Dorkasi Mwakawanga et al.. Development and pilot test of a smartphone app for midwifery care in Tanzania: A comparative cross-sectional study. PLOS ONE. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0283808

AUTHORS

10 · 5 CENTRES

Yoko Shimpuku, Beatrice Mwilike, Dorkasi Mwakawanga, Keiko Ito, Naoki Hirose, Kazumi Kubota, Michelle L. Munro-Kramer, Michelle L. Munro-Kramer, Michelle L. Munro-Kramer, Michelle L. Munro-Kramer

1 Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan
2 School of Nursing, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
3 Kyoto University Hospital, Kyoto, Japan
4 Department of Healthcare Information Management, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
University of Michigan, UNITED STATES

EDITOR / REVIEWER

Michelle L. Munro-Kramer