Table 7.

Design of trials with a focus on general health, preventive health, health beliefs, and other topics.

Reference	Topic	Setting/country/population	Study design	Experimental arm vs control arm(s), n	Intervention description and control	Duration
Moniz et al (2015) [49]	Preventive health behaviors (smoking cessation, condom use, nutrition optimization, seat belt use, breastfeeding)	Prenatal clinic/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States/<28 weeks’ gestation	Observational	Intervention (171), no control arm	General preventive health text messages regarding tobacco cessation, sexually transmitted disease prevention, daily vitamin use, seat belt use, dietary discretion and breastfeeding	12 weeks
Dalrymple et al (2013) [50]	General prenatal health topics	Prenatal clinic/Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States/no special population	Observational	Intervention (31), no control arm	Twice weekly text messages delivered alongside text4baby messages on days text4baby messages were not sent	Unclear
Bush (2017) [51]	Numerous including weight, milestones, Wyoming-specific resources	Online/Wyoming state, United States/Medicaid users	Observation	Intervention (85) vs non–app-Medicaid members (5158)	Wyhealth Due Date Plus: mobile phone app that includes information on 70 health risk factors, provides pregnancy timeline, weight tracker, and appointment reminders	6 months
Krishnamurti (2017) [52]	Numerous, including nutrition, routine prenatal care, violence, smoking, preterm labor	Prenatal clinic/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States/Medicaid-qualifying women	Observation	Intervention (16), no control arm	My Healthy Pregnancy App: Interactive application that gathered data regarding risk factors and delivered patient-specific risk feedback and recommendations. Could also arrange for Uber rides to clinic	3 months or until delivery
Ledford (2016) [53]	General obstetric care, health literacy	Prenatal clinic/Bethesda, MD, United States/10-12 weeks’ gestation	RCTa	Intervention (87) vs control (86)	Mobile app for journaling with space for recording weight, blood pressure, and experience between prenatal appointments vs spiral notebook alone	Until 32 weeks’ gestation
Evans et al (2014) [54]	General prenatal health topics	Army Medical Center/Tacoma, WA, United States/<14 weeks’ gestation	RCT	Intervention (498) vs control (498)	Text messages: 3 automated, tailored text messages per week vs usual care	4 weeks
Evans et al (2012) [55]	General prenatal health topics	Prenatal clinic/Fairfax county, VA, United States/largely low-income	RCT	Intervention (48) vs control (38)	Automated, tailored text messages vs usual care	28 weeks’ gestation
Takeuchi (2016) [56]	Perineal massage	Prenatal clinic/Tokyo, Japan/30-33 weeks’ gestation	RCT	Intervention (81) vs control (80)	Mobile phone website underlining effects of perineal massage, massage technique, support through peer group, communication with professional, and reminders/encouragement vs leaflet alone	Until delivery

^aRCT: randomized controlled trial.