Telelactation with a Mobile App: User Profile and Most Common Queries

Abstract

Background: Mobile applications related to health issues are currently expanding. Different uses of new technologies have produced positive results regarding breastfeeding support. Breastfeeding applications are increasing.

Objective: We conducted a descriptive analysis of a mobile application for breastfeeding (LactApp) to study the user profile and the most frequent queries.

Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective, comparative, and descriptive ecological time-series study of LactApp from 2016 to 2019. Google Analytics and the app itself were used for data collection. The data were analyzed in Excel, and for the time series, Prais–Winsten autoregressions were applied based on the Durbin–Watson method in Stata.

Results: A total of 115,830 users and 71,780 infants were registered in the application. A total of 1.91% of these users obtained the medical version. The application was used for both queries and surveys and for users to interact through chat. A total of 30.17% of the responses were related with “baby's sleep” (8.94%), 8.91% were related to “preservation of milk,” 6.16% were related to “breastfeeding crisis,” and 6.15% were related to “physiological evolution of breastfeeding,” all with an increasing trend.

Conclusion: LactApp is a resource for breastfeeding that is widely downloaded and used by a substantial number of individuals. The most recurring topics were baby's sleep, milk extraction and preservation, breastfeeding crisis and physiological evolution of breastfeeding.