ArticleBMC women's health2020
The association between reproductive health smartphone applications and fertility knowledge of Australian women.
Article in BMC women's health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- A Comparison of Two Hormonal Fertility Monitoring Systems for Ovulation Detection: A Pilot Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Trial
- Impact of a Mobile Application for Tracking Nausea and Vomiting During Pregnancy (NVP) on NVP Symptoms, Quality of Life, and Decisional Conflict Regarding NVP Treatments: MinSafeStart Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2022Trial
- Fertility care in the age of algorithms: opportunities and risks of AI and social media integration in reproductive medicine.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2026Review
- Exploring engagement patterns in a reproductive health app using the Technology Acceptance Model.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2026Article
- Motivations for Use, User Experience and Quality of Reproductive Health Mobile Applications in a Pre-Menopausal User Base: A Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- The sexual and reproductive health knowledge of women in Australia: A scoping review.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2025Article
- Flowing data: women's views and experiences on privacy and data security when using menstrual cycle tracking apps.Oxford open digital health · 2025Article
- Trends, outcomes and knowledge gaps in mobile apps for reproductive endocrinology and infertility: a scoping review protocol.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Menstrual Cycle Management and Period Tracker App Use in Millennial and Generation Z Individuals: Mixed Methods Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- The nutritional content required to design an educational application for infertile women.BMC women's health · 2023Article
- Design and evaluation of a mobile-based nutrition education application for infertile women in Iran.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2022Review
- Fertility Awareness and Perceptions among Procreant Age Group in Western India: An Exploration with Mixed Methodology.Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciences · 2021Article
- Menstrual Cycle Tracking Applications and the Potential for Epidemiological Research: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature.Current epidemiology reports · 2021Article
- Regret over the delay in childbearing decision negatively associates with life satisfaction among Japanese women and men seeking fertility treatment: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2020Article
- A survey of women's experiences of using period tracker applications: Attitudes, ovulation prediction and how the accuracy of the app in predicting period start dates affects their feelings and behaviours.Women's health (London, England)Observational
- "UPDATE: I'm pregnant!": Inferring global downloads and reasons for using menstrual tracking apps.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPrevious studies have identified that women living in developed countries have insufficient knowledge of factors which may be contributing to the increasingly high global infertility rates such as maternal age and assisted reproductive technologies. There is a large market of reproductive health smartphone applications, yet little is known about the advantages these apps may confer to users in regards to reproductive health knowledge.
methodsAn anonymous, online survey of women living in Australia aged 18 and above was open March-June 2018, until ≥200 responses were acquired for statistical power. Respondents answered questions regarding knowledge about general fertility and related factors (age, cyclic fertility, smoking, obesity, miscarriage rate, and success of assisted reproductive technologies). Fertility knowledge was compared in respondents who did or did not use apps relating to female reproductive health. Additionally the functions preferred in reproductive health apps was described by app using respondents. Sociodemographic information was also collected, and relevant data within the dataset was subject to multivariable modelling for the outcome of the fertility knowledge questions.
resultsOf the 673 respondents that completed the survey, 43.09% reported using mobile phone applications relating to female reproductive health. On average, respondents answered only three of the six fertility knowledge questions correctly. App using respondents were more likely to score better on one question, related to fertility during the menstrual cycle (p < 0.001). App users most commonly reported using the menstrual tracking function in apps (82.4%), which may account for the increased knowledge of cyclic fertility.
conclusionsThis data provides preliminary evidence toward the usefulness of smartphone applications as a medium for providing information about fertility to women. A limited understanding of one's own fertility was demonstrated despite being essential for the decision-making of women throughout their reproductive years.
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.