Smartphone Application for Breastfeeding Education in Medical Students

August 27, 2020 updated by: Erika Ochoa-Correa, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon

Efficacy of a Smartphone App for a Breastmilk Feeding Course Among Sixth Year Medical Students

The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of two educational interventions to enhance breastfeeding knowledge among senior medical students. One intervention consisted of a traditional face-to-face teaching lecture and the other consisted of the use of a smartphone application containing information about breastfeeding.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

A quasi-experimental study was performed. Students were allocated to two groups; the first group underwent a 6-hour face-to-face breastfeeding course which was divided in four 1.5-hour sessions during a time span of two weeks. The second intervention consisted of downloading a digital smartphone application designed by the research team to teach proper breastfeeding concepts which participants freely navigated during the same time span of two weeks. Before and after each intervention, students answered a general breastfeeding knowledge test consisting of twenty multiple choice answers with a score range of 0 to 20. Statistical comparisons between pre- and post-test scores were performed in each group and mean change in scores was compared between them to establish which method was the most efficient. Moreover, amount of time spent on the application was descriptively measured.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

438

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Mexico
    • Nuevo Leon
      • Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, 64460
        • Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Senior adult medical students of any gender who at the time were enrolled on the Pediatrics biannual course during the July 2018 th -July 2019 th academic period.
  • Provide verbal informed consent
  • At least 18 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Students who did not possess an electronic device (smartphone or tablet) or decided not to participate in the study.
  • Rate of non-attendance to the general pediatric course greater than 50%

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: OTHER
  • Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Traditional face-to-face teaching method
In this arm, participants underwent a 6-hour traditional face-to-face lecture on breastfeeding education in a classroom at a university. Course was divided into 4 1.5-hour sessions during a time span of two weeks.
Other: Traditional face-to-face breastfeeding lecture
This intervention consists of the impartition of a face-to-face breastfeeding course
EXPERIMENTAL: Breastfeeding smartphone app
In this group, participants downloaded a smartphone application which contained an online breastfeeding education course. Participants freely navigated through the smartphone app during a time span of two weeks.
Other: Smartphone breastfeeding application
This intervention consists of a smartphone application which contains relevant information and topics regarding proper breastfeeding knowledge for medical students.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Efficacy of each breastfeeding course evaluated by a quantitative general knowledge questionnaire
Time Frame: 14 days
In order to measure this outcome, all participants answered a test consisting of a quantitative questionnaire of general breastfeeding knowledge before and after the intervention. This general knowledge test consisted of twenty questions with multiple choice answers ranging between two to five possible answers according to the nature of the question. It was designed by study researchers which included specialists in Pediatrics and breastfeeding and it was based solely on the course content. Minimum and maximum scores were 0 and 20, where a higher score indicated a better grade on the test. Central tendency and dispersion measures were obtained for pre- and post-test scores and a further statistical comparison between this parameters indicated whether there was a statistically significant difference. If the post-test score was statistically superior to the pre-test score, it was concluded that the intervention was efficient to improve breastfeeding knowledge.
14 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Comparison of the efficacy of each breastfeeding course by comparison of mean differences
Time Frame: 14 days
In order to measure this outcome, a mean difference between the post-test and pre-test scores was obtained for each group. Furthermore, these mean differences were compared to establish if the mean improvement in test scores was different between both interventions. If the mean change of one intervention was statistically superior to the other, it was assumed that the former intervention was more efficient to promote breastfeeding knowledge. On the contrary, if no statistical differences between the effects of both interventions on test scores were observed, it was assumed that no intervention was superior to the other.
14 days
Amount of time in minutes spent on the smartphone application
Time Frame: 14 days
Study researchers had access to the amount of time in minutes that each student dedicated to studying on the smartphone application. Descriptive statistics with central and dispersion tendencies were obtained to evaluate this outcome.
14 days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Erika Ochoa-Correa, MD, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

July 31, 2018

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

July 31, 2019

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

December 15, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 22, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 27, 2020

First Posted (ACTUAL)

September 3, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

September 3, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 27, 2020

Last Verified

August 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PE18-00005

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

At request of other researchers, sharing of IPD will be assessed by the research team assuring confidentiality of participants information.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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