Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jun 22, 2020
Date Accepted: Sep 3, 2020
The attitude and expectations of health care professionals towards app-based therapy in patients with osteoarthritis of the hip or knee
ABSTRACT
Background:
The use of mHealth applications is becoming increasingly widespread. However, little is known about the attitudes, expectations and basic acceptance of health care professionals towards such treatment options. As physical activity and behaviour modification is crucial in osteoarthritis, app-based therapy could be particularly useful for the self-management of this condition.
Objective:
We conducted a survey among medical professionals to determine the degree of acceptance and content considered useful for app-based therapy for osteoarthritis of the hip or knee.
Methods:
Health care professionals visiting a rehabilitation congress and employees of a university hospital were asked to fill out a questionnaire consisting of 16 items. A total of 240 questionnaires were distributed.
Results:
127 participants completed the questionnaire. At 95.3 % (121/127), the approval rate for app-based therapy for patients with osteoarthritis of the hip or knee was very high. Regarding possible concerns, data protection aspects were primarily mentioned (32.3%; 41/127). Regarding potential content, educational units, physiotherapeutic exercise modules and motivational psychological procedures were all met with broad approval.
Conclusions:
The study showed a high acceptance of app-based therapy for osteoarthritis, thus indicating a major potential of this form of treatment to be applied, prescribed and recommended by medical professionals. It was widely accepted that the contents should reflect a multimodal therapy approach.
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Copyright
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