Validation of the Persian Version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) in the field of pregnancy

Mobile applications during pregnancy can help pregnant women improve health care for themselves and their infants. In this regard, using valid and reliable evaluation tools is a good solution. Mobile application rating scale (MARS) is one of the valid tools in English to measure the quality of these programs, whose Persian version was validated in the field of pregnancy in this study.

The cross-sectional study, the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) was translated into Persian and back-translated into English and compared with the original format. In the next step, the Persian version of MARS was used to evaluate 44 Persian mobile applications in the field of pregnancy. Face validity, content validity (CVR, CVI) and criterion validity (convergent and divergent) were calculated by Cronbach's alpha method and evaluators' agreement. Eleven specialists in the field of medical informatics and health information management participated in the content validity stage and two midwifery experts participated in the evaluation stage of midwifery applications. Pearson and intra-class correlation coefficient and student t-test were used in SPSS software (version 25).

In the content validity assessment stage, all 23 items were confirmed, and some edits needed to maintain the clarity and simplicity of the items was done. Convergent and divergent validity was confirmed. There was correlation coefficient between the score of the subscales (engagement, functionality, aesthetics, and information) with the total score of MARS from 0.85 to 0.92 for the first evaluator and from 0.77 to 0.92 for the second evaluator. There was a positive and significant relationship between the evaluators' opinion in ranking the quality of all subscales of 44 pregnancy apps. Cronbach's alpha for the whole scale was calculated to be 0.93 and 0.91 in two assessments.

According to the indicators calculated in this study, Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) is a valid and reliable tool in the field of pregnancy. The results of this study can be used by specialists, designers and evaluators of mobile applications in the field of pregnancy and pregnant women are its main beneficiaries.