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“I’ve done a test, what now?” A focus group study exploring eHealth access for women

Abstract:

Background: Following the receipt of a pregnancy test result, a woman's access to timely and appropriate information is essential for enabling her to make informed decisions. Individually tailored information can be hard to find, which can constrain decision-making, leading to delayed engagement with maternity services. Carefully designed eHealth interventions could speedily deliver targeted information but women at most risk of adverse birth outcomes may experience significant barriers to accessing digitally delivered information. Aim: To investigate how women find information about what to do next when they have a positive or negative pregnancy test. Method: Professional networks were used to recruit women from ethnic and socio-demographic groups associated with delayed engagement in antenatal care. Informed by participatory design, we sought to understand how these women access reproductive health information following a pregnancy test; and then we explored their perspectives about which eHealth tool they would find most helpful. We collected qualitative and quantitative data from three focus groups and two individual interviews. Qualitative data were analysed interpretively using thematic analysis, and quantitative data were analysed descriptively. Findings: Women accessed reproductive information following pregnancy from doctors, school nurses, midwives, the internet and, for some, family and friends. Barriers to access included financial challenges, degree of information literacy and the feeling of being judged by others. Participants expressed a clear preference for reproductive information which was free, instant, private and personalised to them. The most preferred eHealth tool was a free 0800 number and the least popular were the QR code and free text options. Conclusions: Despite the rapid uptake of eHealth health tools to access health information in general, following a pregnancy test, study participants indicated they valued free, confidential and personal interactions with a health professional to supplement any electronic information they used or accessed. These methods did not eclipse the importance to many participants of embodied, face-to-face contact with a desired health professional, specifically a midwife.

https://doi.org/10.12784/nzcomjnl56.2020.1.5-12

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e-Health tool, engagement, pregnancy, reproductive health information