Agile Development and Testing of a Gamified Human Milk Feeding Education Mobile App for Participants of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children: Co-Design Approach.

backgroundHuman milk feeding and breastfeeding are the recommended standards for infant feeding. Nevertheless, breastfeeding rates in the United States remain below target levels, with disparities across racial, ethnic, and income groups. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) plays a substantial role in reducing these disparities by providing lactation support to individuals with low income. With ongoing WIC modernization efforts, there is an opportunity to create and optimize technology solutions responsive to WIC participants' and staff's needs to increase access to the program and its services.

objectiveThis study aimed to describe the development and pilot testing of Daily Drop, a gamified, low-bandwidth mobile app to provide human milk feeding education and support for WIC participants.

methodsGuided by the 5-stage model for comprehensive research on telehealth, Daily Drop underwent 3 stages: concept development, service design, and preimplementation. Using a mixed methods approach, the project team sought feedback from WIC leadership and staff at the state and local levels, state IT staff, and WIC participants at each stage. Suggestions from stages 1 and 2 were incorporated into the testable app before field testing (stage 3). During field testing, participants and staff completed surveys across multiple time points and qualitative interviews to evaluate the app's feasibility, usability, and acceptability. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative data were thematically analyzed.

resultsKey feedback from WIC participants and staff included providing flexibility for a variety of human milk feeding approaches (stage 1); and providing easily accessible educational information throughout gameplay, diversifying progress tracking to emphasize knowledge growth and expertise development, and including supportive or affirming messages for users (stage 2). During field testing (stage 3), >67% of WIC participants agreed with 7 out of 12 acceptability, satisfaction, and usability questions about the app, reiterated in interviews where they highlighted the simplicity of the app and how it increased their confidence to feed human milk. However, barriers to app use included a lack of reminders and repetitive information for parents with previous human milk feeding experience. Similarly, for WIC staff, mean scores for acceptability and feasibility were 3.8 (SD 1.0) and 4.4 (SD 0.6), respectively (max 5) at the early phase, but these scores declined over time. Staff recommendations included providing further, in-depth training to increase their familiarity with the app and reporting, and integrating the reports into WIC's management information system.

conclusionsThe development of Daily Drop followed an agile development, co-design approach with the involvement of relevant key partners at all stages of development. Overall, Daily Drop was deemed acceptable, usable, and engaging by WIC participants and staff. Future research could focus on testing its effectiveness in improving human milk feeding behaviors and cost-effectiveness.