Abstract
Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide, with a substantial proportion of the asthma population being children and adolescents. Self-management is recognized as a key component to asthma management, with multiple international guidelines emphasizing the need for adequate self-management skills for good asthma control. Unfortunately, the uptake amongst young people and adolescents is low, with often suboptimal engagement to self-management education and skills contributing to poor adherence to medication as well as poor perception of asthma symptoms. Innovative solutions to deliver education and self-management to adolescents are clearly needed. mHealth is the use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet devices to improve healthcare and has been used in multiple chronic diseases. This review articles explores the current use of mHealth in asthma, specifically smartphone and tablet applications as a generation-appropriate, accessible delivery modality for provision of asthma education and self-management interventions in adolescents. Current evidence gaps are also highlighted, which should be addressed in future research.
Highlights
Introduction published maps and institutional affilAsthma is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases worldwide, with an estimated330 million people diagnosed [1]
This review article aims to be a rapid review of the current evidence and use of smartphone and tablet devices as a specific modality of mobile health (mHealth), as a generation-appropriate and readily available delivery modality for self-management among adolescents, to identify current evidence gaps which should be addressed in future research
Sufficient time is required from trained healthcare professionals to help deliver self-management education, and patients must be receptive to the development of these skills, which may be difficult among the adolescent cohort
Summary
Whilst there are many pharmacological agents proven to be efficacious in asthma, selfmanagement programs and self-management skills are recognised as a key component in disease management. Self-management programs aim to overall change behaviours, and develop skills specific to the condition with techniques including improving knowledge of the disease, encouraging active participation in care, empowering the patient and supporting adherence to strategies which may prevent complications and symptoms [15,16,17]. The evidence for selfmanagement programs is robust in adults with asthma, with a Cochrane systematic review reporting reduced hospitalisations, reduced urgent healthcare utilisation, reduced missed work or school days and improved quality of life in those with self-management education involving interventions such as asthma plans, self-monitoring of symptoms and frequent review by health professionals [24]. Sufficient time is required from trained healthcare professionals to help deliver self-management education, and patients must be receptive to the development of these skills, which may be difficult among the adolescent cohort
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