ENGAGEMENT AND USAGE PATTERNS OF A MOBILE APPLICATION TO MONITOR DISEASE AND TREATMENT ADHERENCE IN PATIENTS WITH ASTHMA

Abstract

Inhaled therapies are the cornerstone of effective asthma treatment and adequate inhaled medication adherence (IMA) is critical. mHealth technologies have shown to be promise for asthma self-management, including IMA improvement. InspirerMundi is a mobile application designed to support self-management of patients with asthma. It aims to transform the adherence to treatment into a positive experience through gamification and social interaction while allowing for ubiquitous verified IMA monitoring. The app includes an image-based inhaler usage detection tool, tools for reporting symptoms and burden of the asthma (disease monitoring) and Game & Peer support features. Still, the effectiveness of these tools depends on a regular app use and a real-life assessment of patient engagement and pattern of use is needed. This work evaluates the patient engagement, usage, and acceptance of InspirerMundi app during a real-world multicentre feasibility study. The app use was recommended for a 4-months period to 77 participants with persistent asthma. From those, 72 installed the app, with 67% of them beginning to use both the inhaler usage detection tool and the disease monitoring components within the first week. Over 95% used it more than once, with the period of usage (from first use to last registered monitoring in 2018) being over 30 days for almost 70% of the users, and over 90 days for around 35%. Nevertheless, the usage rate (ratio of the number of days with app usage and the period of use) had a median value of 0.6 and was above 75% for only 35% of the users, revealing room for improvement. the users started to use the app features right after installation and the usage patterns and retention rates indicate that InspirerMundi is well accepted among patients with asthma. was given, if required), at one month (T2) and at four months (T3). Data were collected on: demographics, patients’ opinions on mobile applications, satisfaction with InspirerMundi (global and regarding concerning different specific components, integration of functionalities, ease of use, and confidence; using a 5-item scale from 1, lower, to 5, highest), willingness to use and recommend the app, as well as the perceived impact of use. Data from the app database collected up to the end 2018, including a minimum of six months after inclusion in the study, were retrieved. To validate the inhaler introduced in the therapeutic plan by the user, images captured using the image-based inhaler usage detection tool were distributed by 16 reviewers, who visually checked for validity (inhaler visible in the photo and agreement with the app registered inhaler type).