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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research

Date Submitted: Feb 6, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 7, 2018 - Jun 21, 2018
Date Accepted: Jun 21, 2018
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jan 26, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Adolescent Preferences and Design Recommendations for an Asthma Self-Management App: Mixed-Methods Study

Roberts C, Sage A, Geryk L, Sleath B, Carpenter D

Adolescent Preferences and Design Recommendations for an Asthma Self-Management App: Mixed-Methods Study

JMIR Form Res 2018;2(2):e10055

DOI: 10.2196/10055

PMID: 30684424

PMCID: 6334705

Adolescent Preferences and Design Recommendations for an Asthma Self-Management App: Mixed-Methods Study

  • Courtney Roberts; 
  • Adam Sage; 
  • Lorie Geryk; 
  • Betsy Sleath; 
  • Delesha Carpenter

ABSTRACT

Background:

Approximately 10% of adolescents in the United States have asthma. Adolescents widely use apps on mobile phones and tablet technology for social networking and gaming purposes. Given the increase in recreational app use among adolescents, leveraging apps to support adolescent asthma disease management seems warranted. However, little empirical research has influenced asthma app development; adolescent users are seldom involved in the app design process.

Objective:

The aim of this mixed-methods study was to assess adolescent preferences and design recommendations for an asthma self-management app.

Methods:

A total of 20 adolescents with persistent asthma (aged 12-16 years) provided feedback on two asthma self-management apps during in-person semistructured interviews following their regularly scheduled asthma clinic visit and via telephone 1 week later. Interviews were audiorecorded, transcribed verbatim, analyzed using SPSS v24, and coded thematically using MAXQDA 11.

Results:

Regarding esthetics, app layout and perceived visual simplicity were important to facilitate initial app use. Adolescents were more likely to continually engage with apps that were deemed useful and met their informational needs. Adolescents also desired app features that fit within their existing paradigm or schema and included familiar components (eg, medication alerts that appear and sound like FaceTime notifications and games modeled after Quiz Up and Minecraft), as well as the ability to customize app components. They also suggested that apps include other features, such as an air quality tracker and voice command.

Conclusions:

Adolescents desire specific app characteristics including customization and tailoring to meet their asthma informational needs. Involving adolescents in early stages of app development is likely to result in an asthma app that meets their self-management needs and design preferences and ultimately the adoption and maintenance of positive asthma self-management behaviors.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Roberts C, Sage A, Geryk L, Sleath B, Carpenter D

Adolescent Preferences and Design Recommendations for an Asthma Self-Management App: Mixed-Methods Study

JMIR Form Res 2018;2(2):e10055

DOI: 10.2196/10055

PMID: 30684424

PMCID: 6334705

Per the author's request the PDF is not available.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.