Prevention and control of urinary tract stones using a smartphone-based self-care application: design and evaluation

BACKGROUND: Self-care and participation of patients in improving health and increasing awareness about the risk factors that affect the development of disease in patients with urinary tract stones are influential factors in controlling and improving the quality of life in these patients. In this regard, the availability and capability of smartphones increase patients’ self-care ability. The present study aimed to develop and evaluate a self-care application based on smartphones for patients with urinary tract stones. METHODS: The present study is a developmental and applied study that was conducted in three phases. First, the information needs and functionalities of the self-care application were determined by surveying 101 patients, 32 urologists and nephrologists, 11 nurses, and six other specialists. In the second phase, the initial sample of the smartphone-based application was created, and in the third phase, the designed application was evaluated by 15 experts using the standard Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ 18.3) and Nielsen’s Attributes of Usability (NAU) questionnaire. Results of the questionnaires were entered into SPSS-23 software for analysis using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: In the first phase, 21 information elements and nine critical functionalities for the self-care application were identified, and then this application was designed by Java programming language. The evaluation of experts showed that two aspects of the quality of system user interface from the user's point of view and the overall performance of the application together obtained the highest score (6.43 from 7), which was equal to 91.85%. Then according to the experts, aspects of the degree of convenience and user-friendliness of the application received the highest score (6.10 from 7), which was equal to 87.14%, and also all aspects of the application were evaluated at an acceptable level. In general, results of the evaluation of application's usability by experts showed that the usability of the application for patients with urinary tract stones was at an acceptable level. CONCLUSION: According to the results obtained from evaluating the smartphone-based application for patients with urinary tract stones, this self-care application can be used to prevent and control urinary tract stones and facilitate self-care and active patient participation in care.