Dominik Happel

Advisors
Michael Nissen (M.Sc), Prof. Dr. Björn Eskofier

Duration
06/2020 – 12/2020

Abstract
The German maternity logbook has been introduced in 1961 and obtained primarily positive feedback since. It standardized preventive checkups for pregnant women, information propagation, led to a significant decrease in newborn mortality and increased the interest of expecting mothers in
medical details of their own child [1, 2]. Considering the technological advances in the last 60 years, some people claim the German maternity logbook lags behind current technological possibilities and requires a revision to increase efficiency and effectiveness [1, 3]. Some research effort has already been spent in its digitization, however it primarily focused on technological feasibility, instead of catering more to actual needs of expecting mothers and healthcare professionals [1, 2, 3]. This includes the lack of use for current wearable sensors that allow unobtrusive long-term health-data recording. Such data enable new chances to identify patterns which might allow an early prediction of pregnancy complications [4]. However, this also raises new concerns, as pregnant women might not understand the meaning of the underlying sensor readings. This might lead to increased cyberchondria, which is known to increase health anxiety e.g. by overly pessimistic online-web-search-driven self-diagnoses [5, 6]. Yet, user motivation is a prerequisite for continuous data recording and app usage. It is unclear which motivation and interaction strategy is most suitable for pregnant women handling such data and might involve the development of novel concepts for data obfuscation and interaction.

This thesis therefore aims to identify existing interaction concepts in this field, adapt these for the use-case of a maternity logbook app and review the impact of visualization obfuscation techniques in context of cyberchondria. It should be investigated whether it is possible to adapt
existing app interaction and motivation techniques for the target group of pregnant women. Furthermore, an interaction and data visualisation concept should be researched that minimizes cyberchondria, but does not negatively impact user acceptance and motivation.

References:
[1] Maul, H., Waller, T., Hoischen, S., Sohn, C.: Der elektronische Mutterpass-Potenzial eines innovativen Konzepts. Frauenarzt 47, 2006, 800-804
[2] Zimmermann, R., Bloechlinger-Wegmann, B., Kurmanavicius, J.: Der elektronische Mutterpass. Der Gynakologe 4, 2006, 278-282
[3] San, O.Y., Husain, W.: Maternity data management utilizing cloud computing. 2014 International Conference on Computer and Information Sciences (ICCOINS), 2014, 1-6
[4] Souza, R.T., Cecatti, J.G., Mayrink, J., et al.: Identification of earlier predictors of pregnancy complications through wearable technologies in a Brazilian multicentre cohort: Maternal Actigraphy Exploratory Study I (MAES-I) study protocol. BMJ Open, 2019
[5] White, R.W., Horvitz, E.: Experiences with web search on medical concerns and self diagnosis. AMIA annual symposium proceedings, 2009, 696-700
[6] White, R.W., Horvitz, E.: Cyberchondria: Studies of the Escalation of Medical Concerns in Web Search. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, Vol. 27, No. 4, Article 23, 2009