ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Digit. Health

Sec. Connected Health

Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1621293

Beyond the Interface: Benchmarking Pediatric Mobile Health Applications for Monitoring Child Growth Using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS)

Provisionally accepted
Anggi  Septia IrawanAnggi Septia Irawan1*Arie  Dwi AlristinaArie Dwi Alristina2Rizky  Dzariyani LailiRizky Dzariyani Laili3Nuke  AmaliaNuke Amalia3Arief  Purnama MuharramArief Purnama Muharram4Adriana  Viola MirandaAdriana Viola Miranda5Bence  DöbrössyBence Döbrössy1Edmond  GirasekEdmond Girasek1
  • 1Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
  • 2Faculty of Health Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
  • 3Universitas Hang Tuah, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia
  • 4HealthAI Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
  • 51000 Days Fund, Denpasar, Indonesia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Introduction: As mHealth applications become increasingly adopted in Indonesia, it is crucial to assess their quality and usability for parents and healthcare professionals.Aim: This study evaluated the quality of pediatric-related mobile health (mHealth) applications available in Indonesia, focusing on their ability to support child growth monitoring and provide educational resources for parents and caregivers.Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study. From December 1, 2024, and January 31, 2025 we conducted systematic search for pediatric mHealth applications in Indonesian Google Play Store and Apple App Store using predetermined keywords. Inclusion criteria required the applications to be available in Bahasa Indonesia, focus on child health, and include growth tracking or stunting prevention features. We excluded applications that were not functioning during the testing period. Quality assessment was conducted by five healthcare professionals using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS). MARS assessed applications from multiple domains, including engagement, functionality, aesthetics, and information quality. Inter-rater reliability was ensured using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation, and T-tests. A p-value of <0.05 is considered to be statistically significant.Findings: Nine applications were included in this study. Seven of the applications (77.78%) focused on tracking child growth and development and providing educational content. Less than half of the apps had built-in community features that enabled social support (n=4, 44.44%) and features for feedback mechanisms & personalized guidance (n=3, 33.33%) respectively. The majority were developed by commercial companies (n=7, 77.78%). Quality assessment found significant variability across the apps, with high functionality and aesthetics scores but more variability in the domains of app engagement, quality of information, and subjective quality or perceived value. Conclusion: This research underscored the need for the development of higher-quality, evidence-based mHealth apps for pediatric care in Indonesia, particularly in improving user engagement, feedback mechanisms and accessibility.

Keywords: Pediatric care, stunting prevention, assessment, e-health, Digital Health, User Experience (UX), User interface (UI)

Received: 07 May 2025; Accepted: 03 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Irawan, Alristina, Laili, Amalia, Muharram, Miranda, Döbrössy and Girasek. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Anggi Septia Irawan, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, 1089, Budapest, Hungary

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.