Conference Paper2026

Early Stage Design of a Culturally Tailored Menopausal Mental Health Support Mobile Application for Bangladeshi Women

Sinthia Chowdhury, Deawan Rakin Ahamed Remal, Istiaq Ahmed, Faiza Omar Arpita, Ashraful Islam, M Ashraful Amin

2026 7th International Conference on Mobile Computing and Sustainable Informatics (ICMCSI)

IEEE, pp. 1926-1933

  • Good Health and Well-being — Relevance: 96%
  • Gender Equality — Relevance: 91%
  • Reduced Inequalities — Relevance: 74%
DOI: 10.1109/icmcsi67283.2026.11412796URL

Abstract

Menopausal women experience different physical and psychological symptoms like hot flashes, sleep disturbance, joint pain, depression, and anxiety. In Bangladesh, menopause is a culturally stigmatized topic, and women's experiences at this stage of life are largely understudied. As a result, a large percentage of women suffer silently throughout the menopausal stag and this causes widespread untreated health issues. An effective mHealth application can help in this conservative setting to assist women suffering from mental health issues in their menopausal years, and the widespread adoption of mobile phones in the current time creates a major opportunity for digital health interventions. However, menopausal women are neglected by the majority of current female-centric mHealth applications. Women living in rural areas, where healthcare services are not easily accessible, are often neglected. In this study, we conducted a needs assessment survey of 400 Bangladeshi women aged 40 and above to guide the development of a culturally tailored menopausal mhealth application. The survey collected demographic data, menopausal symptom severity, and standardized mental health measures, including PHQ-9 for depression, GAD-7 for anxiety. Based on our findings, we propose Jahan, a culturally tailored mHealth application to support Bangladeshi menopausal women. This study presents the collected survey data, descriptive analysis, and the design reasoning of the low-fidelity prototype developed, demonstrating how a culturally tailored mHealth application can promote women's well-being. Additionally, we present a comparative analysis of existing relevant mHealth applications in our study.

Keywords

  • Anxiety
  • menopause
  • mobile health
  • low-fidelity prototypes
  • Bangladeshi women
  • women's well-being
  • rural women
  • needs assessment
  • depression

CCDS Authors

Deawan Rakin Ahamed Remal
Deawan Rakin Ahamed Remal

Deawan Rakin Ahamed Remal

  • Research Assistant, HCI Wing

Published at

HCII

Research Interests

Natural Language Processing, Health Informatics, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Vision

Istiaq Ahmed
Istiaq Ahmed

Istiaq Ahmed

  • Research Assistant, HCI Wing

Published at

CHI, HCII

Research Interests

mHealth, Human-Computer Interaction, Cross-Platform App/Website Development

Ashraful Islam, PhD
Ashraful Islam

Ashraful Islam, PhD

  • Center Director, CCDS
  • Director, HCI Wing

Assistant Professor

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)

Published at

CHI, UIST, UbiComp, IJCNN, ICIP, HCII, ICDMW, BLP, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, JMIR, JMIR Human Factors, JMIR Formative Research, IEEE Access, Smart Agricultural Technology, Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, PLOS ONE

Research Interests

Human-Computer Interaction, AI for Social Good, AI for Public Health, AI for Impact

Prof. M Ashraful Amin, PhD
M Ashraful Amin, PhD

Prof. M Ashraful Amin, PhD

  • Founder Director, CCDS
  • Director, AI/ML, HCI & DS Wings

Professor

+1 more affiliation

Department of Information Sciences and Technology

George Mason University, USA

Published at

ACL, CHI, UbiComp, ECAI, WACV, PAKDD, IJCNN, ICPR, ICIP, HCII, CLEF, BLP, Scientific Reports, JMIR, IEEE Access, Smart Agricultural Technology, Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, PLOS ONE

Research Interests

Machine Learning, Cognitive & Vision Science, Cybernetics, Surveillance & Security, ICT in Education, Health, & Agriculture, Human-Computer Interaction, Internet of Things, Robotics

References

  1. 1.Kurt Kroenke, Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B. W. Williams. (2001). The PHQ-9. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 16(9), 606–613[10.1046/j.1525-1497.2001.016009606.x]
  2. 2.Robert L. Spitzer, Kurt Kroenke, Janet B. W. Williams, Bernd Löwe. (2006). A Brief Measure for Assessing Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(10), 1092[10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092]
  3. 3.F Gkrozou, O Tsonis, M Godden, V Siafaka, M Paschopoulos. (2019). Mobile Health (mHealth) apps focused on menopause: Are they any good?. Post Reproductive Health, 25(4), 191–198[10.1177/2053369119878978]
  4. 4.Jie Lu, Kangfen Li, Xinlie Zheng, Ran Liu, Min Chen, Jingyun Xian, Suhua Tu, Lingling Xie. (2023). Prevalence of menopausal symptoms and attitudes towards menopausal hormone therapy in women aged 40–60 years: a cross-sectional study. BMC Women s Health, 23(1), 472[10.1186/s12905-023-02621-8]
  5. 5.Kamrun Nahar Koly, Zarin Tasnim, Sharmin Ahmed, Jobaida Saba, Rudbar Mahmood, Faria Tasnim Farin, Sabrina Choudhury, Mir Nabila Ashraf, M. Tasdik Hasan, Ibidunni Oloniniyi, Rifath Binta Modasser, Daniel D. Reidpath. (2022). Mental healthcare-seeking behavior of women in Bangladesh: content analysis of a social media platform. BMC Psychiatry, 22(1), 797[10.1186/s12888-022-04414-z]
  6. 6.Nik Hussain Nik Hazlina, Mohd Noor Norhayati, Ismail Shaiful Bahari, Nik Ahmad Nik Muhammad Arif. (2022). Prevalence of Psychosomatic and Genitourinary Syndrome Among Menopausal Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Frontiers in Medicine, 9, 848202[10.3389/fmed.2022.848202]
  7. 7.Ryan Afreen, Sanjna L. Surya, Tasnim Jara, Ima Islam, Rahana Parvin, S. M. Ferdousuzzaman, Masum Salah Uddin, Nahreen Ahmed. (2024). Enhancing mental health literacy and care through community-driven solutions in rural Bangladesh. Frontiers in Global Women s Health, 5, 1478817[10.3389/fgwh.2024.1478817]
  8. 8.Carolyn Gibson, Mayank Ajmera, Fiona O’Sullivan, Aki Shiozawa, Greta Lozano-Ortega, Elizabeth Badillo, Maanasa Venkataraman, Shayna Mancuso. (2025). A Systematic Review of Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms Among Women Experiencing Vasomotor Symptoms Across Reproductive Stages in the US. International Journal of Women s Health, Volume 17, 537–552[10.2147/ijwh.s491640]
  9. 9.Jennifer Duffecy, Arfa Rehman, Scott Gorman, Yong Lin Huang, Heide Klumpp. (2025). Evaluating a Mobile Digital Therapeutic for Vasomotor and Behavioral Health Symptoms Among Women in Midlife: Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR mhealth and uhealth, 13, e58204[10.2196/58204]
  10. 10.Mafruha Alam, Cathy Banwell, Kamalini Lokuge. (2020). The Effect of Women’s Differential Access to Messages on Their Adoption of Mobile Health Services and Pregnancy Behavior in Bangladesh: Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study. JMIR mhealth and uhealth, 8(7), e17665[10.2196/17665]
  11. 11.Robin Andrews, Deborah Lancastle, Kate Bache, Arron S Lacey. (2023). Does Health & Her app use improve menopausal symptoms? A longitudinal cohort study. BMJ Open, 13(12), e077185[10.1136/bmjopen-2023-077185]
  12. 12.Saria Tasnim, Md Abidul Haque, Summyia Nazmeen. (2017). Experience of Menopause and Menopausal Transition among Middle aged Women Attending A Periurban Hospital. Bangladesh Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 31(1), 10–15[10.3329/bjog.v31i1.34270]
  13. 13.M. Jonayed, Maruf Hasan Rumi. (2024). Towards women’s digital health equity: A qualitative inquiry into attitude and adoption of reproductive mHealth services in Bangladesh. PLOS Digital Health, 3(10), e0000637[10.1371/journal.pdig.0000637]
  14. 14.Geetha Kandasamy, Dalia Almaghaslah, Mona Almanasef. (2024). A study on anxiety and depression symptoms among menopausal women: a web based cross sectional survey. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1467731[10.3389/fpubh.2024.1467731]
  15. 15.Atik Ahsan, Ananya Raihan. (2013). Understanding mHealth impact among Aponjon (MAMA Bangladesh) subscribers through a phone survey in Bangladesh. , 1–4[10.1145/2517899.2517920]
  16. 16.Jana Karam, Maggie M Paul, Chrisandra Shufelt, Prajna Ravikumar, Amy M Fratianni, Sey Oloyede, Erin M Pagel, Mary S Hedges, Ekta Kapoor, Juliana M Kling, Kristin Cole, Rajeev Chaudhry, Stephanie S Faubion. (2025). Evaluating the Efficacy of a Mobile Phone App in Enhancing Menopause Knowledge and Shared Decision-Making: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Research Protocols, 14, e76536[10.2196/76536]
  17. 17.Klara Greffin, Marlene Muehlmann, Anna Pauleikhoff, Bita Stelling, Holger Muehlan, Michael Stach, Silke Schmidt, Samuel Tomczyk. (2025). Embracing change: Navigating menopause with the help of mobile health apps in Germany. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, 24, 100320[10.1016/j.cpnec.2025.100320]
← All publications