Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Dec 3, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Dec 7, 2018 - Dec 21, 2018
Date Accepted: Mar 21, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Patients’ experiences using a consumer mobile health application for heart failure self-management
ABSTRACT
Background:
To support heart failure (HF) self-management, a team of hospital clinicians, patients and family caregivers have co-designed the consumer mobile health application (app), Care4myHeart.
Objective:
This research aimed to uncover patient experiences using the app for HF self-management.
Methods:
Patients with HF used the app for 14 days on their own smart device in the home setting, followed by a mixed-methods evaluation. Eight patients were recruited and six completed the Mobile Application Rating Scale and attended an interview.
Results:
The overall app quality score was ‘acceptable’ at 3.53 out of 5, scoring highest in the aesthetics (3.83) and information (3.78) sub-scale. The lowest mean score was in the app-specific subscale representing the perceived impact on health behaviour change (2.53). The weight and fluid restriction sections were most frequently used with graphical representation of patient data an opportunity for improved self-awareness and ongoing learning. There was potential benefit to HF self-management as i) a communication tool for doctors to assist with care planning as all medical information is in one place, and ii) for daily management of illness with the benefits of accurately recording and reviewing personal health data. Participants however, were unsure this would fit into the way they conduct self-management as using the app for HF would require a fundamental change in daily routines. Technical problems with functionality and data entry issues were reported alongside relatively minor improvement suggestions.
Conclusions:
The findings from this usability study suggest that a significant barrier to adoption is the lack of integration of technology into every-day life in the context of already established disease self-management routines. Future studies should explore the barriers to adoption and sustainability of consumer mobile health interventions for chronic conditions, particularly whether introducing such apps is more beneficial at the commencement of a self-management regimen.
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© 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.