Wyoming Medicaid maternity app improves likelihood of prenatal visits, study finds

Pregnant women in Wyoming who used a Medicaid maternity app were 76 percent more likely to have a first trimester prenatal visit than non-app users, according to recent research out of the Wyoming Medicaid program.

For the pilot study, Wyoming Medicaid contracted with Xerox State Healthcare to launch WYhealth Due Date Plus, a pregnancy app. The app, developed by Wildflower Health, provided clinical information and connected users to local resources.

The research team — comprising representatives from Wyoming Medicaid, Wildflower Health and Xerox Healthcare Solutions — compared health outcomes between 85 pregnant Medicaid members who registered for the app and 5,158 pregnant Medicaid members who did not.

The researchers found registered Medicaid members visited the app an average of 6.4 days per month, and app users were more likely to complete prenatal visits, according to findings published in Telemedicine and e-Health. App users were also 25 percent as likely to experience low birth weight compared to non-app users.

"Preliminary data indicate that Due Date Plus attracted an engaged user base," the study authors concluded. "These promising results suggest broader implementation and further study of mobile applications for prenatal support."

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