Mobile Health

Introduction: Considering the importance of empowering patients and their families by providing appropriate information and education, it seems smartphone apps provide a good opportunity for this group. The purpose of this review was to identify studies which used smartphone apps to help children and adolescents with cancer and their families.

Background: Asthma is a common chronic pediatric disease that can negatively impact children and families. Self-management strategies are challenging to adopt but critical for achieving positive outcomes. Mobile health technology may facilitate self-management of pediatric asthma, especially as adolescents mature and assume responsibility for their disease.

Background: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) affect approximately 2% to 5% of the US population. However, most families are unable to access FASD-informed interventions. Barriers to care include the lack of a knowledgeable and skilled workforce and family-level barriers such as limited financial resources, inability to access childcare, and stigma. As a result, families often try peer-to-peer and self-help support strategies.

Background: Elective colorectal cancer (CRC) surgeries offer enhanced surgical outcomes but demand high self-efficacy in prehabilitation and competency in self-care and disease management postsurgery. Conventional strategies to meet perioperative needs have not been pragmatic, and there remains a pressing need for novel technologies that could improve health outcomes.

Background: In the United States, nearly 80% of family caregivers of people with dementia have at least one chronic condition. Dementia caregivers experience high stress and burden that adversely affect their health and self-management. mHealth apps can improve health and self-management among dementia caregivers with a chronic condition. However, mHealth app adoption by dementia caregivers is low, and reasons for this are not well understood.

Context: Mobile health (mHealth) provides an opportunity to use internet coverage in low- and middle-income countries to improve palliative care access and quality. Objectives: This study aimed to design a mobile phone application (app) to enable or improve communication between family caregivers, community caregivers, and palliative care teams; to evaluate its acceptability, processes, and mechanisms of action; and to propose refinements.

Background: Heart failure (HF) affects many older individuals in North America, with recurrent hospitalizations despite postdischarge strategies to prevent readmission. Proper HF self-care can potentially lead to better clinical outcomes, yet many older patients find self-care challenging. Mobile health (mHealth) apps can provide support to patients with respect to HF self-care. However, many mHealth apps are not designed to consider potential patient barriers, such as literacy, numeracy, and cognitive impairment, leading to challenges for older patients.

Objectives: • Identify research-based and commercial mobile applications currently available to support palliative and end of life care.

Urinary incontinence (UI) is a highly prevalent condition, burdening older adults and their informal caregivers. This study explored the development and feasibility of a 6-week evidence-based, educational/skill building program delivered via tablet-personal computer aimed at developing informal caregiver UI knowledge; and enhancing informal caregiver skill set in prompted voiding and toileting strategies. Caregivers also received individualized weekly coaching sessions from a nurse expert. Feasibility and preliminary efficacy were tested in three caregiver/care-recipient dyads.

It has been well‐established that social environmental factors can increase the risk of rehospitalization for people receiving home healthcare services. For caregivers who might be challenged to keep up with sometimes unfamiliar health monitoring tasks or to know when to seek help, mobile health technology offers the potential to enhance the skills of informal caregivers and to improve the communication between home and clinical care.