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User Experiences and Preferences Regarding an App for the Treatment of Urinary Incontinence in Adult Women: Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Although several apps are available to support the treatment of urinary incontinence (UI), little has been reported about the experiences and preferences of their users. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore the experiences and preferences of women using a mobile app for...

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Autores principales: Wessels, Nienke J, Hulshof, Lisa, Loohuis, Anne M M, van Gemert-Pijnen, Lisette, Jellema, Petra, van der Worp, Henk, Blanker, Marco H
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7320303/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32530431
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/17114
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author Wessels, Nienke J
Hulshof, Lisa
Loohuis, Anne M M
van Gemert-Pijnen, Lisette
Jellema, Petra
van der Worp, Henk
Blanker, Marco H
author_facet Wessels, Nienke J
Hulshof, Lisa
Loohuis, Anne M M
van Gemert-Pijnen, Lisette
Jellema, Petra
van der Worp, Henk
Blanker, Marco H
author_sort Wessels, Nienke J
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Although several apps are available to support the treatment of urinary incontinence (UI), little has been reported about the experiences and preferences of their users. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore the experiences and preferences of women using a mobile app for the treatment of UI and to identify potential improvements to the app. We developed this app for three types of UI: stress UI, urgency UI, and mixed UI. METHODS: The participants in this qualitative study were women with self-reported stress UI, urgency UI, or mixed UI who used an app-based treatment to manage their condition for at least six weeks. Following the intervention, semistructured interviews were conducted to explore the participants’ experiences and preferences regarding the app. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed separately by two researchers. RESULTS: Data saturation was reached after interviewing 9 women (aged 32-68 years) with stress UI (n=1, 11%), urgency UI (n=3, 33%), or mixed UI (n=5, 56%). Accessibility, awareness, usability, and adherence emerged as the main themes. On the one hand, participants appreciated that the app increased their accessibility to care, preserved their privacy, increased their awareness of therapeutic options, was easy to use and useful, and supported treatment adherence. On the other hand, some participants reported that they wanted more contact with a care provider, and others reported that using the app increased their awareness of symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This qualitative study indicates that women appreciate app-based treatment for UI because it can lower barriers to treatment and increase both awareness and adherence to treatment. However, the app does not offer the ability of face-to-face contact and can lead to a greater focus on symptoms.
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spelling pubmed-73203032020-07-01 User Experiences and Preferences Regarding an App for the Treatment of Urinary Incontinence in Adult Women: Qualitative Study Wessels, Nienke J Hulshof, Lisa Loohuis, Anne M M van Gemert-Pijnen, Lisette Jellema, Petra van der Worp, Henk Blanker, Marco H JMIR Mhealth Uhealth Original Paper BACKGROUND: Although several apps are available to support the treatment of urinary incontinence (UI), little has been reported about the experiences and preferences of their users. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore the experiences and preferences of women using a mobile app for the treatment of UI and to identify potential improvements to the app. We developed this app for three types of UI: stress UI, urgency UI, and mixed UI. METHODS: The participants in this qualitative study were women with self-reported stress UI, urgency UI, or mixed UI who used an app-based treatment to manage their condition for at least six weeks. Following the intervention, semistructured interviews were conducted to explore the participants’ experiences and preferences regarding the app. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed separately by two researchers. RESULTS: Data saturation was reached after interviewing 9 women (aged 32-68 years) with stress UI (n=1, 11%), urgency UI (n=3, 33%), or mixed UI (n=5, 56%). Accessibility, awareness, usability, and adherence emerged as the main themes. On the one hand, participants appreciated that the app increased their accessibility to care, preserved their privacy, increased their awareness of therapeutic options, was easy to use and useful, and supported treatment adherence. On the other hand, some participants reported that they wanted more contact with a care provider, and others reported that using the app increased their awareness of symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This qualitative study indicates that women appreciate app-based treatment for UI because it can lower barriers to treatment and increase both awareness and adherence to treatment. However, the app does not offer the ability of face-to-face contact and can lead to a greater focus on symptoms. JMIR Publications 2020-06-12 /pmc/articles/PMC7320303/ /pubmed/32530431 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/17114 Text en ©Nienke J Wessels, Lisa Hulshof, Anne M M Loohuis, Lisette van Gemert-Pijnen, Petra Jellema, Henk van der Worp, Marco H Blanker. Originally published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 12.06.2020. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://mhealth.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Wessels, Nienke J
Hulshof, Lisa
Loohuis, Anne M M
van Gemert-Pijnen, Lisette
Jellema, Petra
van der Worp, Henk
Blanker, Marco H
User Experiences and Preferences Regarding an App for the Treatment of Urinary Incontinence in Adult Women: Qualitative Study
title User Experiences and Preferences Regarding an App for the Treatment of Urinary Incontinence in Adult Women: Qualitative Study
title_full User Experiences and Preferences Regarding an App for the Treatment of Urinary Incontinence in Adult Women: Qualitative Study
title_fullStr User Experiences and Preferences Regarding an App for the Treatment of Urinary Incontinence in Adult Women: Qualitative Study
title_full_unstemmed User Experiences and Preferences Regarding an App for the Treatment of Urinary Incontinence in Adult Women: Qualitative Study
title_short User Experiences and Preferences Regarding an App for the Treatment of Urinary Incontinence in Adult Women: Qualitative Study
title_sort user experiences and preferences regarding an app for the treatment of urinary incontinence in adult women: qualitative study
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7320303/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32530431
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/17114
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