Development and Testing of a Theory-Based Mobile Health App for Weight Management in Pregnancy: A Randomized Controlled Trial

During the data collection phase, pregnant women will first fill out the Enrollment Criteria and Preliminary Registration Form to create their records, determining included and excluded participants. After preliminary tests, participants will be divided into intervention and control groups using stratified randomization based on their BMI. Participants will be stratified into normal BMI, overweight, and obese BMI categories. Pregnant women who meet the inclusion criteria will be given general information about the study and their written and verbal consent will be obtained. Pregnant women will be included in the study by the 12th week of pregnancy and/or earlier, and after their information and preliminary tests are collected, those in the intervention group will start using the mobile application when they reach the 12th week of pregnancy.

Data for the study will be collected using the Pregnancy Introduction Form, which includes sociodemographic information about the pregnant women, the Follow-up Form, which includes information from interim and final follow-ups, the Healthy Eating Attitude Scale developed to measure the attitude towards healthy eating, and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire to determine physical activity levels. Interim follow-ups of pregnant women in both groups will be conducted at the 24th week of pregnancy, during which the Follow-up Form, Healthy Eating Attitude Scale, and International Physical Activity Questionnaire will be administered, and current weight and height will be recorded. Similarly, the final follow-up will be conducted during the last prenatal check-up (38th week of pregnancy), where the same forms and measurements will be repeated. At the end of the study, to objectively evaluate participants in the intervention group, the User Version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale (uMARS) will be applied within the first week after birth to evaluate the mobile application.

The control group will receive routine care following the Ministry of Health's Prenatal Care Management Guide of the Republic of Turkey. To enhance adherence among control group participants, weekly antenatal health information unrelated to healthy eating, physical activity, and weight management will be provided via phone. Interim follow-ups will be conducted face-to-face during routine check-ups (for OGTT) at the 24th week of pregnancy, during which the Follow-up Form, Healthy Eating Attitude Scale, and International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form will be administered, and current weights will be measured with a standard simple scale brought by the researcher (same scale) and recorded. The final follow-up will be conducted face-to-face during the last prenatal check-up at the 38th week of pregnancy, where the Follow-up Form, Healthy Eating Attitude Scale, and International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form will be administered again, and current weights will be measured (with the same scale).

In addition to the routine care provided according to the Turkish Ministry of Health's Prenatal Care Management Guidelines, the intervention group will receive a mobile application intervention. The intervention (mobile application) will begin in the 12th week of pregnancy. Participants in the intervention group will start using the mobile application at the 12th week of pregnancy and continue to use it throughout their pregnancy. The content of the mobile application includes information on healthy nutrition and exercise during pregnancy, as well as monitoring and notifications. Pregnant women will be guided, encouraged, and monitored for healthy nutrition and exercise through the mobile application.

At the 24th week of pregnancy, interim assessments will be conducted for the participants in the intervention group. These assessments will include the Tracking Form, the Attitude Scale Towards Healthy Nutrition, and the Short Form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, administered face-to-face during routine check-ups. The current weight of the participants will be measured using a standard scale (the same scale) brought by the researcher, and the data will be recorded.