Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Oct 7, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 14, 2018 - Dec 9, 2018
Date Accepted: Jul 21, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Transform-CF - Evaluation of a mobile application for adolescents and Young adults with cystic fibrosis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) continues to be the most common life-limiting chronic pulmonary disease in adolescents and young adults. Lung function decline in CF is particularly pronounced in the transition phase between 12 and 24 years of age due to biological and psycho-social factors influencing adherence. During transition, the improvement of self-management and the promotion of independence from the parents are important objectives. Mobile health care applications (mHealth) could help to attain these goals and thereby improve adherence, quality of life and ultimately CF life expectancy.
Objective:
A) To assess user behavior and satisfaction of adolescents and young adults with CF over a three month observation period of using a mobile mHealth application. B) To identify areas of improvement of this mHealth application. C) To compare overall and disease-specific satisfaction, lung function and anthropometry of adolescents and young adults with CF before and after using the mHealth application.
Methods:
Adolescents and young adults with CF (n = 25, 12-24 years, mean age 16 + 3 years, 14 female, 11 male) used a free mHealth application for three months. Data collection was carried out using questionnaires on life satisfaction and usage characteristics and standardized assessment of lung function and anthropometry.
Results:
The reminder function for medication was used by 23/25 (92%) of the participants at week 4 of the observation period. Use of the medication plan declined to 20/25 (80%) at 8 weeks of the observation period, revealing attrition of application usage. At the end of the study only 5/25 (20%) of the participants wanted to continue using the application, suggesting low overall attachment to the application. Yet, 17/25 (68%) of participants saw the mobile application as a support for everyday life. Improvements of the hedonistic qualities were identified to improve mHealth application adherence. Comparisons of satisfaction with different life aspects revealed increasing values for the sub-item “respiration” and stable values for the sub-item “lack of handicap by CF”, suggesting that application use might stabilize certain CF-specific aspects of the weighted satisfaction with life. FEV1 or BMI weren’t affected, neither directly after the intervention, nor in two years following.
Conclusions:
Participants reduced their application use during the observation period despite high ratings of its utility. Only a few CF-specific aspects of weighted life satisfaction were possibly positively modulated by use of the mHealth application, yet clinical parameters FEV1 and BMI were not affected. An adaptation of the functions to adolescent-specific needs could improve long term use and (thus) positively affect the course of disease. Clinical Trial: NONE
Citation
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Copyright
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