A Patient-Oriented App (ThessHF) to Improve Self-Care Quality in Heart Failure: From Evidence-Based Design to Pilot Study

BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) remains a major public health challenge, while HF self-care is particularly challenging. Mobile health (mHealth)–based interventions taking advantage of smartphone technology have shown particular promise in increasing the quality of self-care among these patients, and in turn improving the outcomes of their disease. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to co-develop with physicians, patients with HF, and their caregivers a patient-oriented mHealth app, perform usability assessment, and investigate its effect on the quality of life of patients with HF and rate of hospitalizations in a pilot study. METHODS: The development of an mHealth app (The Hellenic Educational Self-care and Support Heart Failure app [ThessHF app]) was evidence based, including features based on previous clinically tested mHealth interventions and selected by a panel of HF expert physicians and discussed with patients with HF. At the end of alpha development, the app was rated by mHealth experts with the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). The beta version was tested by patients with HF, who rated its design and content by means of the Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ). Subsequently, a prospective pilot study (THESS-HF [THe Effect of a Specialized Smartphone app on Heart Failure patients’ quality of self-care, quality of life and hospitalization rate]) was performed to investigate the effect of app use on patients with HF over a 3-month follow-up period. The primary endpoint was patients’ quality of life, which was measured with the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) and the 5-level EQ-5D version (EQ-5D-5L). The secondary endpoints were the European Heart Failure Self-care Behavior Scale (EHFScBS) score and the hospitalization rate. RESULTS: A systematic review of mHealth-based HF interventions and expert panel suggestions yielded 18 separate app features, most of which were incorporated into the ThessHF app. A total of 14 patients and 5 mHealth experts evaluated the app. The results demonstrated a very good user experience (overall PSSUQ score 2.37 [SD 0.63], where 1 is the best, and a median MARS score of 4.55/5). Finally, 30 patients (male: n=26, 87%) participated in the THESS-HF pilot study (mean age 68.7 [SD 12.4] years). A significant increase in the quality of self-care was noted according to the EHFScBS, which increased by 4.4% (SD 7.2%) (P=.002). The mean quality of life increased nonsignificantly after 3 months according to both KCCQ (mean increase 5.8 [SD 15] points, P=.054) and EQ-5D-5L (mean increase 5.6% [SD 15.6%], P=.06) scores. The hospitalization rate for the follow-up duration was 3%. CONCLUSIONS: The need for telehealth services and remote self-care management in HF is of vital importance, especially in periods such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We developed a user-friendly mHealth app to promote remote self-care support in HF. In this pilot study, the use of the ThessHF app was associated with an increase in the quality of self-care. A future multicenter study will investigate the effect of the app use on long-term outcomes in patients with HF.