Development and Pilot Testing of a Mobile Based Patient Decision Aid for Childbirth Decision Making

Introduction: Patient Decision Aids (PtDA) facilitates Shared Medical Decision-Making (SDM). This study aims to facilitate the childbirth decision-making process by a decision aid mobile application. Method: The model development process for decision aids was used and a master group supervised it. The assessment of study was made by a face-to-face interview and prototype was also developed for it. Then Alpha test was performed with 10 pregnant women and 10 experts. 60 pregnant women and 9 clinical professionals participated in a beta test. Result: The modules of our PtDA consisted of health record, decision aid, educational content, frequently asked questions and help. The result of alpha test revealed that this system had high usability. After increasing intervention, the intervention group had more knowledge of women in comparison with the control group. Moreover, the reduction of decisional conflict in the intervention group was statistically significant compared with the control group. In addition, the preference for women was changed from cesarean section (CS) to vaginal delivery in the intervention group. In the beta test, the result of the ultimate usability evaluation showed that this system was usable and easy. Conclusion: According to the results, it seems that PtDAs can be effective for empowering women in order to choose the mode of delivery.