HF app to support self-care among community dwelling adults with HF: A feasibility study

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of Heart Failure (HF) is expected to increase by 46% from 2012 to 2030, which will result in over 8 million adults with HF. The development and testing of interventions that can support HF self-care behaviors is critical.

Aim: Determine the: 1) feasibility of using the HF App in middle to older adult community dwelling patients with HF; and 2) acceptability of using the HF App mobile health application.

Methods: A convenience sample of community dwelling HF participants daily used the HF App to enter physiologic data, answer questions about symptoms, reviewed HF education within the application and received reminders over a two-week period. Feasibility and acceptability measures were assessed using data extracted from the principal investigator's qualitative diary. In addition, two acceptability questionnaires were utilized.

Results: All participants enrolled (N = 10) completed the two-week period. Participant mean age was 64.5 years. The mean scores on the acceptability of the HF App 19 (SD 2.87) indicated increased perceived benefit of using the app while the mean scores of acceptability of the education offered in the app 12.4 (SD 2.84) indicated that participants positively benefited from viewing the education. Qualitative results indicated that participants were more aware of their symptoms and the need to self-monitor.

Conclusions: This feasibility study points to the incorporation of mobile applications to support self-care as promising research that can be useful to aid middle to older individuals in performing effective HF self-care but further studies with a larger randomized sample is needed.

Keywords: Adult; Heart failure; Self-care; Technology.