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)
In: 2026 7th International Conference on Mobile Computing and Sustainable Informatics (ICMCSI)
IEEE, pp. 1926-1933
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.
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)Human-Computer Interaction, AI for Social Good, AI for Public Health, AI for Impact