Design and evaluation of mobile application for adolescent asthma self-management

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children and adolescents. Asthma self-management application is designed to help control the disease, manage symptoms and make accurate clinical decisions. Objective: The aim of this study is to develop and evaluate an accompanying self-management application for asthma patients. Methods: First, the initial content and methods of presenting content and scenarios related to self-management were extracted by searching for and reviewing literature, guidelines and asthma self-management applications. Then, the opinion of 6 clinical experts about the initial content and methods of presenting the content as well as the relevant scenarios was obtained in the form of a semi-structured interview. After the relevant experts approved the final content and a decision was made on how to present the content, an application was developed. Finally, the developed program was evaluated with the participation of 20 asthma patients. Findings: Findings from content extraction and the method of presenting content and classifying the extracted content based on the IMB model, which ultimately content was classified into 13 sections. Findings from application evaluation reported that the average score of users to the application on a scale of one to five is 4 and 90% of users also recommend the program to others to use. In addition, the findings of the two dimensions of user-friendliness of the program and the effect of using the application indicated that the user-friendliness of the program is optimal and the use of the program has a positive effect on users' awareness of their self-management methods, the use of respiratory aids. Conclusion: The findings showed that the self-management application program with asthma could lead to active participation of patients in disease control.