High School Girls and Smartphone Applications to Track Menstrual Cycle

Abstract

Objective: Tracking of periods is recommended to adolescent girls because of their irregular menstrual cycle and longer cycle length compared to adult women. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of use of apps to track menstrual cycle among high school girls from Belgrade, Serbia, as well as to define factors associated with their use.

Methods: A study was carried out in December 2016 and January 2017. The study included 394 high school girls from Belgrade, Serbia, who used smartphones. The students were asked to fill in an anonymous questionnaire about socio-demographic characteristics, use of online platforms and smartphone apps as well as online health (e-health) literacy scale (eHEALS).

Results: The prevalence of tracking menstrual cycle via smartphone apps was 29.7%. The multivariate logistic regression model showed that studying humanities-languages school program, using Wikipedia, websites run by physicians, health forums, but not YouTube were associated with use of men- strual cycle tracking apps. Girls who used fitness apps were more likely to use apps to track menstrual cycle.

Conclusion: Ap- proximately one third of girls in Belgrade highs schools who have smartphones used menstrual cycle tracking apps. Use of different digital media might influence the decision to track menstrual cycle via smartphone apps.