Self-care intervention using mobile apps for sexual and reproductive health in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region

ABSTRACT

Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) concerns physical, mental, and social well-being as related to sexual and reproductive systems. Self-care, which is the ability to promote health without the support of a health-care provider, can advance SRH, especially for fragile populations. Mobile health (mHealth) solutions can be used to raise awareness about SRH. We performed a structured literature review and analysis of mHealth-based approaches for delivering self-SRH services and interventions in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). A fuzzy-based framework for assessing those mHealth apps was proposed. We identified 6 out of 737 papers, and 23 (5.7%) out of 400 mHealth apps retrieved from app-stores, describing mHealth use for self SRH with only 10 apps developed in EMR countries, namely Morocco, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, and Jordan. Our fuzzy-based framework proposes guidelines regarding the implementation of self-care interventions to help project leaders promote their adoption in the SRH systems.

KEYWORDS:

• EMR
• self-care
• sexual and reproductive health
• mobile health apps
• fuzzy logic

Acknowledgments

Ms. LUCIDO, Briana and Dr. NARASIMHAN, Manjulaa from the Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, for critical reading of the manuscript and Prof. S. Yunkap Kwankam from the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth for the help with this study conceptualization.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.