ReviewMaternal & child nutrition2020
Smartphone applications available to pregnant women in the United Kingdom: An assessment of nutritional information.
Review in Maternal & child nutrition, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Safer Sleep Guidance in Standalone UK Smartphone Apps for Parents of Newborns and Infants: Systematic mHealth App Review.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Pooled it
- Effectiveness and Usability of Digital Tools to Support Dietary Self-Management of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2021Pooled it
- Mobile Phone Apps in Australia for Improving Pregnancy Outcomes: Systematic Search on App Stores.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2020Pooled it
- The Effect of E-Healthy Diet Literacy on Sustainable Nutrition Behaviors in Pregnant Women.Public health nutrition · 2026Article
- eHealth Literacy and Its Associated Factors in Patients with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Cross-Sectional Study.Patient preference and adherence · 2026Article
- Comments: "Are smartphones a tool to cope with the fear of childbirth? The correlation between the fear of loss of connection and the fear of childbirth".Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 2026Article
- User Satisfaction With Pregnancy Management Apps in Mainland China: User-Generated Content Analysis and Text Mining Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Visualizing user demands through storyboarding in the mHealth app development for pregnant women: a conceptual framework.mHealth · 2025Review
- An Online Multimodal Food Data Exploration Platform for Specific Population Health: Development Study.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Article
- Are smartphones a tool to cope with the fear of childbirth? The correlation between the fear of loss of connection and the fear of childbirth.Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 2024Article
- Using the Person-Based Approach to Develop a Digital Intervention Targeting Diet and Physical Activity in Pregnancy: Development Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Pregnancy Apps for Self-Monitoring: Scoping Review of the Most Popular Global Apps Available in Australia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Datamama, bringing pregnancy research into the future: design, development, and evaluation of a citizen science pregnancy mobile application.Frontiers in drug safety and regulation · 2023Article
- Specialty grand challenge editorial innovative approaches for pharmacoepidemiologic research in pregnancy: Shifting the paradigm of Thalidomide's impact on pregnant women.Frontiers in drug safety and regulation · 2023Article
- First-time Mothers' Understanding and Use of a Pregnancy and Parenting Mobile App (The Baby Buddy App): Qualitative Study Using Appreciative Inquiry.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2022Article
- Data handling practices and commercial features of apps related to children: a scoping review of content analyses.Archives of disease in childhood · 2022Article
- Eating for 2: A Systematic Review of Dutch App Stores for Apps Promoting a Healthy Diet during Pregnancy.Current developments in nutrition · 2022Article
- Mobile Phone App Use Among Pregnant Women in China and Associations Between App Use and Perinatal Outcomes: Retrospective Study.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Quality assessment of pre- and postnatal nutrition and exercise mobile applications in the United States and China.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The importance of diet during pregnancy is critically important for the short- and long-term health of both mother and child. The number of apps targeting pregnant women is rapidly increasing, yet the nutritional content of these tools remains largely unexplored. This review aimed to evaluate the coverage and content of nutrition information in smartphone apps available to U.K. pregnant women. Keyword searches were conducted in iTunes and Google Play stores in November 2018. Candidate apps were included if they targeted pregnant women, provided pregnancy-specific nutritional information, had a user rating of at least 4+ based on at least 20 ratings, and were available in English. Nutritional content was assessed for accuracy against U.K. recommendations. Behaviour change techniques (BCTs) were also evaluated. Twenty-nine apps were included, seven of which originated in the United Kingdom. There was a large variability in the quality of smartphone app nutritional information. The accuracy of nutrition information varied, and several apps conveyed inappropriate information for pregnancy. On average, 10 BCTs were identified per app (range 2-15). Overall, smartphone apps do not consistently provide accurate and useful nutritional information to pregnant women. This study highlights the need for the integration of evidence-based nutritional information during app development and for increased regulatory oversight. App developers should also make it clear that nutritional content is intended for a specific geographical region or population or modify for the intended audience. These are important considerations for the design of future apps, which are increasingly used to complement existing maternity services.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.