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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research

Date Submitted: Feb 22, 2019
Date Accepted: Oct 31, 2019

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

A Patient Decision Aid App for Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease: Questionnaire Study

Therkildsen SB, Hansen LH, Jensen LED, Finderup J

A Patient Decision Aid App for Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease: Questionnaire Study

JMIR Form Res 2019;3(4):e13786

DOI: 10.2196/13786

PMID: 31750836

PMCID: 6914284

Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.

A Patient Decision Aid App for Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease: Questionnaire Study

  • Signe Bülow Therkildsen; 
  • Linda Houlind Hansen; 
  • Laura Emilie Dinesen Jensen; 
  • Jeanette Finderup

Background:

The Dialysis Guide (DG) is a patient decision aid (PDA) available as an app and developed for mobile phones for patients with chronic kidney disease facing the decision about dialysis modality.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to uncover the applicability of the DG as a PDA.

Methods:

The respondents completed a questionnaire before and after using the DG. The respondents' decisional conflicts were examined using the Decisional Conflict Scale, and the usability of the app was examined using the System Usability Scale (SUS). The change in decisional conflict was determined with a paired t test.

Results:

A total of 22 respondents participated and their mean age was 65.05 years; 20 out of 22 (90%) had attended a patient school for kidney disease, and 13 out of 22 (59%) had participated in a conversation about dialysis choice with a health professional. After using the DG, the respondents' decisional conflicts were reduced, though the reduction was not statistically significant (P=.49). The mean SUS score was 66.82 (SD 14.54), corresponding to low usability.

Conclusions:

The DG did not significantly reduce decisional conflict, though the results indicate that it helped the respondents decide on dialysis modality. Attending a patient school and having a conversation about dialysis modality choice with a health professional is assumed to have had an impact on the decisional conflict before using the DG. The usability of the DG was not found to be sufficient, which might be caused by the respondents’ average age. Thus, the applicability of the DG cannot be definitively determined.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Therkildsen SB, Hansen LH, Jensen LED, Finderup J

A Patient Decision Aid App for Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease: Questionnaire Study

JMIR Form Res 2019;3(4):e13786

DOI: 10.2196/13786

PMID: 31750836

PMCID: 6914284

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