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Opportunities and Challenges of a Self-Management App to Support People With Spinal Cord Injury in the Prevention of Pressure Injuries: Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Mobile health applications can offer tailored self-management support to individuals living with chronic health conditions. However, there are several challenges to the adoption of these technologies in practice. Co-design is a promising approach to overcoming some of these challenges by...

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Autores principales: Amann, Julia, Fiordelli, Maddalena, Scheel-Sailer, Anke, Brach, Mirjam, Rubinelli, Sara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7758166/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33295876
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/22452
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author Amann, Julia
Fiordelli, Maddalena
Scheel-Sailer, Anke
Brach, Mirjam
Rubinelli, Sara
author_facet Amann, Julia
Fiordelli, Maddalena
Scheel-Sailer, Anke
Brach, Mirjam
Rubinelli, Sara
author_sort Amann, Julia
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Mobile health applications can offer tailored self-management support to individuals living with chronic health conditions. However, there are several challenges to the adoption of these technologies in practice. Co-design is a promising approach to overcoming some of these challenges by enabling the development of solutions that meet the actual needs and preferences of the relevant stakeholder groups. OBJECTIVE: Taking spinal cord injury as a case in point, the overall objectives of this study were to identify the perceived benefits of a co-designed self-management app that could promote its uptake and to explore the factors that may impede adoption. METHODS: We adopted a qualitative research approach guided by the Technology Acceptance Model. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with individuals with spinal cord injury (n=15) and two focus groups with health care professionals specialized in spinal cord injury (n=7, n=5). Prior to the interviews and focus groups, study participants were given time to explore the app prototype. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Findings of our analysis indicate that study participants perceived the app prototype as potentially useful for supporting individuals with spinal cord injury in preventing pressure injuries. In particular, we identified three concrete use cases highlighting the benefits of the app for different audiences: (1) a companion for newly injured individuals, (2) an emergency kit and motivational support, and 3) a guide for informal caregivers and family members. We also uncovered several challenges that might impede the adoption of the self-management app in practice, including (1) challenges in motivating individuals to use the app, (2) concerns about the misuse and abuse of the app, and (3) organizational and maintenance challenges. CONCLUSIONS: This study adds to a growing body of research that investigates individuals’ adoption and nonadoption behavior regarding mobile health solutions. Building on earlier work, we make recommendations on how to address the barriers to the adoption of mobile health solutions identified by this study. In particular, there is a need to foster trust in mobile health among prospective users, including both patients and health care professionals. Moreover, increasing personal relevance of mobile health solutions through personalization may be a promising approach to promote uptake. Last but not least, organizational support also plays an instrumental role in mobile health adoption. We conclude that even though co-design is promoted as a promising approach to develop self-management tools, co-design does not guarantee adoption. More research is needed to identify the most promising strategies to promote the adoption of evidence-based mobile health solutions in practice.
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spelling pubmed-77581662020-12-31 Opportunities and Challenges of a Self-Management App to Support People With Spinal Cord Injury in the Prevention of Pressure Injuries: Qualitative Study Amann, Julia Fiordelli, Maddalena Scheel-Sailer, Anke Brach, Mirjam Rubinelli, Sara JMIR Mhealth Uhealth Original Paper BACKGROUND: Mobile health applications can offer tailored self-management support to individuals living with chronic health conditions. However, there are several challenges to the adoption of these technologies in practice. Co-design is a promising approach to overcoming some of these challenges by enabling the development of solutions that meet the actual needs and preferences of the relevant stakeholder groups. OBJECTIVE: Taking spinal cord injury as a case in point, the overall objectives of this study were to identify the perceived benefits of a co-designed self-management app that could promote its uptake and to explore the factors that may impede adoption. METHODS: We adopted a qualitative research approach guided by the Technology Acceptance Model. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with individuals with spinal cord injury (n=15) and two focus groups with health care professionals specialized in spinal cord injury (n=7, n=5). Prior to the interviews and focus groups, study participants were given time to explore the app prototype. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Findings of our analysis indicate that study participants perceived the app prototype as potentially useful for supporting individuals with spinal cord injury in preventing pressure injuries. In particular, we identified three concrete use cases highlighting the benefits of the app for different audiences: (1) a companion for newly injured individuals, (2) an emergency kit and motivational support, and 3) a guide for informal caregivers and family members. We also uncovered several challenges that might impede the adoption of the self-management app in practice, including (1) challenges in motivating individuals to use the app, (2) concerns about the misuse and abuse of the app, and (3) organizational and maintenance challenges. CONCLUSIONS: This study adds to a growing body of research that investigates individuals’ adoption and nonadoption behavior regarding mobile health solutions. Building on earlier work, we make recommendations on how to address the barriers to the adoption of mobile health solutions identified by this study. In particular, there is a need to foster trust in mobile health among prospective users, including both patients and health care professionals. Moreover, increasing personal relevance of mobile health solutions through personalization may be a promising approach to promote uptake. Last but not least, organizational support also plays an instrumental role in mobile health adoption. We conclude that even though co-design is promoted as a promising approach to develop self-management tools, co-design does not guarantee adoption. More research is needed to identify the most promising strategies to promote the adoption of evidence-based mobile health solutions in practice. JMIR Publications 2020-12-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7758166/ /pubmed/33295876 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/22452 Text en ©Julia Amann, Maddalena Fiordelli, Anke Scheel-Sailer, Mirjam Brach, Sara Rubinelli. Originally published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 09.12.2020. 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
Amann, Julia
Fiordelli, Maddalena
Scheel-Sailer, Anke
Brach, Mirjam
Rubinelli, Sara
Opportunities and Challenges of a Self-Management App to Support People With Spinal Cord Injury in the Prevention of Pressure Injuries: Qualitative Study
title Opportunities and Challenges of a Self-Management App to Support People With Spinal Cord Injury in the Prevention of Pressure Injuries: Qualitative Study
title_full Opportunities and Challenges of a Self-Management App to Support People With Spinal Cord Injury in the Prevention of Pressure Injuries: Qualitative Study
title_fullStr Opportunities and Challenges of a Self-Management App to Support People With Spinal Cord Injury in the Prevention of Pressure Injuries: Qualitative Study
title_full_unstemmed Opportunities and Challenges of a Self-Management App to Support People With Spinal Cord Injury in the Prevention of Pressure Injuries: Qualitative Study
title_short Opportunities and Challenges of a Self-Management App to Support People With Spinal Cord Injury in the Prevention of Pressure Injuries: Qualitative Study
title_sort opportunities and challenges of a self-management app to support people with spinal cord injury in the prevention of pressure injuries: qualitative study
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7758166/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33295876
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/22452
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