Abstract 17378: “If My Doctors Had Recommended a Mobile App to Me Back Then, I Wouldn't Have Been in This Situation Today”: Identifying the Barriers and Facilitators to the Utilization of mHealth Apps to Improve Self-Care in Patients With Heart Failure

Abstract

Background: Mobile Health applications (mHealth apps) have been demonstrated as an effective strategy for improving self-care abilities in patients with heart failure (HF). However, the uptake of the apps by patients remains low. Little is known about the patient’s perspectives on the factors that influence their uptake of the apps. This study explored HF patients’ perspectives on the barriers and motivators to the uptake and utilization of mHealth apps. Method: Semi-structure interviews and demographic questionnaires were used to gather data from patients with HF (N= 43) recruited from an academic medical center. An in-depth analysis of the interviews was conducted using a deductive thematic approach with the help of qualitative software, Atias.ti version 8. Results: Among the participants ( median age = 62 [35-92] years, mean±SD ejection fraction = 37.3±17, 41.9% female, 70% smartphone owners), 90.7% (n =39) had no prior use of mHealth apps for self-care. The majority of the participants with no prior use of mhealth (79.5%, n = 31), including 64.7% (n= 17) of participants aged 65yrs and above, expressed an intention to use the apps for self-care. All the participants (100%) stated that their healthcare providers (HCP) had never recommended the use of mHealth apps for self-care. Other barriers included lack of knowledge of the apps, the perceived financial cost of mHealth apps or smartphones, concern for privacy, and security of personal information, resistance to the change of previous self-care strategies, and perceived technology incompetence. Motivators to the uptake of mHealth included perceived usefulness of mHealth apps, mHealth apps’ ease of use, and the belief that the use of mHealth apps may alleviate perceived threat to health, and availability of technical support. Conclusion: This study suggests that patients with HF are willing to use mHealth apps to improve their self-care abilities. Thus, the effort to improve patients’ perceptions of mHealth apps’ usefulness and HCP recommendation of the apps are warranted to turn patients' “intention to use” to actual apps usage.