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Assessing the Efficacy of an Educational Smartphone or Tablet App With Subdivided and Interactive Content to Increase Patients’ Medical Knowledge: Randomized Controlled Trial

Authors :
Timmers, Thomas
Janssen, Loes
Pronk, Yvette
van der Zwaard, Babette C
Koëter, Sander
van Oostveen, Dirk
de Boer, Stefan
Kremers, Keetie
Rutten, Sebastiaan
Das, Dirk
van Geenen, Rutger CI
Koenraadt, Koen LM
Kusters, Rob
van der Weegen, Walter
Source :
JMIR mHealth and uHealth, Vol 6, Iss 12, p e10742 (2018)
Publication Year :
2018
Publisher :
JMIR Publications, 2018.

Abstract

BackgroundModern health care focuses on shared decision making (SDM) because of its positive effects on patient satisfaction, therapy compliance, and outcomes. Patients’ knowledge about their illness and available treatment options, gained through medical education, is one of the key drivers for SDM. Current patient education relies heavily on medical consultation and is known to be ineffective. ObjectiveThis study aimed to determine whether providing patients with information in a subdivided, categorized, and interactive manner via an educational app for smartphone or tablet might increase the knowledge of their illness. MethodsA surgeon-blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted with 213 patients who were referred to 1 of the 6 Dutch hospitals by their general practitioner owing to knee complaints that were indicative of knee osteoarthritis. An interactive app that, in addition to standard care, actively sends informative and pertinent content to patients about their illness on a daily basis by means of push notifications in the week before their consultation. The primary outcome was the level of perceived and actual knowledge that patients had about their knee complaints and the relevant treatment options after the intervention. ResultsIn total, 122 patients were enrolled in the control group and 91 in the intervention group. After the intervention, the level of actual knowledge (measured on a 0-36 scale) was 52% higher in the app group (26.4 vs 17.4, P

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
22915222
Volume :
6
Issue :
12
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.2c2378f91af34d608f57611a775fa68b
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.2196/10742