Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Feb 21, 2021
Date Accepted: Jul 2, 2021
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Supporting women undergoing IVF treatment with timely patient information through an app: A Randomized Controlled Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Since the introduction of assisted reproductive technologies in 1978, over 2 million IVF (in vitro fertilization) babies have been born worldwide. Patients play a vital role in the chances of success for this treatment. They are required to take fertility medication (hormone injections) to activate the ovaries to produce a sufficient number of oocytes. Later on, they need to take medication to increase the chance of the embryo surviving inside the uterus. To minimize emotional burden and to reduce the risk of being non-compliant, patients are educated during an intake consultation at the start of the treatment. The consultation lasts about 30 to 45 minutes and covers all important subjects. Even though ample time and energy is spent on patient education, patients still feel anxious, unknowledgeable and unsupported. This is where electronic health (eHealth) by means of an app for smartphone or tablet comes in, as it allows healthcare professionals to provide their patients with the right information at the right time by using push-notifications.
Objective:
The aim of this randomized controlled trial was to evaluate an app to support IVF and ICSI patients throughout the different phases of their treatment, and to assess its effectiveness. The primary outcome of the study is patients’ level of satisfaction with the information they were provided with. The secondary outcomes were their level of knowledge, ability to administer the medication, overall experienced quality of the treatment and healthcare consumption.
Methods:
This study was performed at specialized fertility clinic of the non-academic teaching hospital Elisabeth-TweeSteden Ziekenhuis (ETZ) in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Between April 2018 and August 2019, patients who were scheduled for IVF or ICSI treatment were invited to participate in a physician-blinded, randomized controlled trial.
Results:
In total, 54 patients participated (intervention group n=29). At the first measurement, patients in the intervention group demonstrated a higher level of satisfaction. In addition, they reported to be more knowledgeable about the different elements of the treatment. Over time, this difference disappeared. There were no differences between patients on the other outcomes.
Conclusions:
Our study demonstrates that, in comparison with standard patient education, using an app to provide patients with timely information, increases their level of satisfaction. Furthermore, using the app leads to a higher level of knowledge about the steps and procedures during the IVF treatment. The app’s usage statistics clearly display patients’ information needs, and their willingness to use an eHealth application as part of their treatment. Clinical Trial: Netherlands Trial Register (NTR): 6959; https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/6959
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