Development and implementation of a mobile app for measuring and triage of nutritional status among patients with cancer

Abstract

Abstract Background: Malnutrition is one of the issues that cancer patients face during treatment and recovery and affects various aspects of their quality of life. Malnutrition has different consequences for patients and the health care system. Therefore, patients with malnutrition or at risk of malnutrition should be identified in time and appropriate interventions should be made. Mobile applications are suitable options for measuring and triaging nutritional status related to cancer. Objective: The present study has provided a mobile application in the form of a calculator to determine the nutritional status of cancer patients and provide the necessary recommendations based on the level of malnutrition of the patients. Method: In this study, at first, the appropriate content for the development of the application program was determined by reviewing the available studies and guidelines, the available nutritional assessment tools, and finally sharing the results obtained in the expert group, and then the mobile application was designed and It was developed and used and evaluated in a blood and oncology center. Result: The findings reported that the Kappa coefficient value between the final score of the mobile application and the final score of the questionnaire was 1 with a standard deviation of 0.000. This value indicates the existence of a high agreement between these items in the mobile application and the paper-based tool at a 100% confidence level. 90% of users also stated that they would recommend the application to others. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that mobile applications are suitable options for mangeing cancer related malnutrition. However, before the app can be used as a real intervention tool, more patients need to use it and medical professionals need to be convinced of its usefulness. Keywords: Cancer, nutritional status measurement, nutritional status triage, mobile application