JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

As the number of people living with chronic illnesses increases, providing wide-reaching and easy-to-use support tools is becoming increasingly important. Supporting people in this group to recognize and use more of their personal strengths has the potential to improve quality of life. With this in mind, we have developed the MyStrengths app prototype, a gamefully designed mHealth app aimed at aiding users in both identifying their strengths and using these strengths more actively in their daily life.

Objective:

The goal of this study was to evaluate the user-reported feasibility and usefulness of the MyStrengths app. The study additionally aimed to explore whether the use of MyStrengths could be associated with selected psychosocial outcomes.

Methods:

A 31-day explorative feasibility trial with a pre/post-test design and an optional end of study interview was conducted. Data collection included system-use log data, demographic information, pre/post psychosocial measures (i.e., Strengths use, Self-efficacy, health-related quality of life, depression), user experience measures (e.g., usability, engagement, flow), and interview data.

Results:

In total, 35 people with at least one chronic condition enrolled in the study, with 26 participants (mean age 48, range 29-62, 1 male) completing the trial. 18 of these were also interviewed post-trial. Participants used the MyStrengths app an average of 6 days during the trial period, with 54% using the app over a period of at least 19 days. In total, 8739 unique app-actions were registered. Of the psychosocial outcome measures, only one subscale, general health, of the RAND36 yielded significant pre-/post-test changes. Post-trial interviews showed that participants considered the MyStrengths app useful, somewhat useful or not useful, evenly distributed into 3 groups. Every participant did, though, voice support for the strengths approach. All participants were able to identify a multitude of personal strengths using the MyStrengths app. Most participants reporting it useful had little or no previous experience with the personal strengths approach. The gameful design choices were welcomed by a multitude of users, and particularly the Dice feature suggesting strengths-exercises, activities that use a specific strength, was well received.

Conclusions:

Even though reported usefulness, and feedback from use varied, most participants were favorable to the strengths-focused approach to care and support. As such, low threshold and wide-reaching mHealth tools such as MyStrengths can hold the potential to support people living with chronic illness in a strengths-focused approach to self-management and mastery of their life.