Jacobson AE, et al. - This article was composed with the goals to develop a mobile application (app) version of the Pictorial Blood Assessment Chart (PBAC) score and assess patient satisfaction and compliance with app reporting vs paper reporting. The outcome of this study showed that a PBAC app as compared to the paper diary was the preferred method of recording menstrual bleeding in adolescents and exhibited feasibility as an exploration information accumulation tool.

Methods

• For this research, they designed a randomized cross-over study.
• They selected 13-21 years old 25 post-menarchal females.
• In this study, subjects agreed to track bleeding in two consecutive menstrual cycles and were randomized to use the PBAC paper diary or mobile app format first.
• At the end of each cycle, a satisfaction survey and system usability scale (app only) evaluated the acceptability of the format utilized.

Results

• 15 years was the median age of all participants.
• Cross-over analysis demonstrated that satisfaction was significantly higher for the app (p<0.001).
• As compared with paper diary, twenty (80%) subjects preferred the app.
• For the app, twenty subjects (80%) had high compliance for reporting bleeding, with a mean of two app entries per day.
• Subjects’ PBAC scores did not vary significantly between the paper diary (median=95) and mobile app (median=114).
• All paper diaries met definition for high compliance.
• There was no significant period or carry-over impact.