Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jan 9, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 11, 2018 - Jun 29, 2018
Date Accepted: Jun 29, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
mHealth App Patient Testing and Review of Educational Materials Designed for Self-Management of Gout Patients: Descriptive Qualitative Studies
ABSTRACT
Background:
Gout is a form of chronic arthritis caused by elevated serum uric acid (SUA) and culminates in painful gout attacks. Although effective uric acid-lowering therapies exist, adherence is low. This is partly due to the lack of support for patients to self-manage their disease. Mobile health apps have been used in the self-management of chronic conditions. However, not all are developed with patients, limiting their effectiveness.
Objective:
The objective of our study was to collect feedback from gout patients to design an effective gout self-management app.
Methods:
Two descriptive qualitative studies were conducted. In Study 1, researchers developed a short educational video and written materials about gout management, designed to be embedded into an app; 6 interviews and 1 focus group were held with gout patients to gather feedback on these materials. Usability testing in Study 2 involved additional gout patients using a pilot version of Healthy.me Gout, a gout self-management app, for 2 weeks. Following the trial, patients participated in an interview about their experiences using the app.
Results:
Patients viewed the gout educational material positively, appreciating the combined use of video, text, and images. Patients were receptive to using a mobile app to self-manage their gout. Feedback about Healthy.me Gout was generally positive with patients reporting that the tracking and diary features were most useful. Patients also provided suggestions for improving the app and educational materials.
Conclusions:
These studies involved patients in the development of a gout self-management app. Patients provided insight to improve the app’s presentation and usability and general lessons on useful features for chronic disease apps. Gout patients enjoyed tracking their SUA concentrations and gout attack triggers. These capabilities can be translated into self-management apps for chronic diseases that require monitoring of pathological values, medication adherence, or symptoms. Future health app design should integrate patient input and be developed iteratively to address concerns identified by patients.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© 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.