Abstract
BackgroundMobile health (mHealth) has good potential for promoting self-care in patients suffering from chronic diseases. The patients' positive attitude toward this technology is a key factor for the successful implementation. The present study was conducted to investigate the asthma patients' use of mobile phone functionalities and their desire to receive self-care services through this technology.MethodsThis survey study was conducted in Iran in 2018. The study population consisted of 146 patients suffering from asthma. The data collection tool was a questionnaire containing items on the demographic characteristics of patients, current use of mobile phone functionalities, and desire to use them for receiving self-care services. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics.ResultsOut of the 160 questionnaires distributed, 146 (91.25%) were completed. The majority of the participants had smartphones (84.9%). Less than half of the participants occasionally used mobile phone functionalities including mobile phone calls (42.5%) and mobile Internet (40.4%) to receive asthma-related information. A significant number of the participants had never used smartphone applications (72.6%) and E-mail (66.4%) to receive asthma-related information. The participants had their greatest use of Internet search, followed by social media, to receive information about asthma symptoms, allergenic and irritating substances, medicinal therapy, and how to use therapy aids. The participants were most willing to use social media for receiving asthma information, communicating with other patients, receiving reminders about doctor's appointment, and receiving warnings about the lack of asthma control.ConclusionIn Iran as a developing country, asthma patients use Internet search mostly to receive instructional information and are willing to use social media rather than other mobile phone functionalities to receive self-care services. These patients believe that mobile phones are appropriate for receiving instructional information and reminders.
Highlights
Mobile health has good potential for promoting self-care in patients suffering from chronic diseases
Given the increasing worldwide use of smartphones, mobile health technologies can work as promising tools to improve self-care in patients with asthma by providing support services such as communication information, providing learning materials, and sending reminders for behavior change [13, 14]. Mobile health (mHealth), as a component of electronic health, is related to the use of mobile phones and other wireless technologies to improve the provision of health-related services
The results showed that the majority of the patients have never used any mobile phone functionalities to receive asthmarelated information; they occasionally used mobile phone calls (42.5%) and short message service (SMS) (36.3%) to receive information and used their mobile Internet (40.4%), social media (39%) and apps (22.6%) to search for and access asthma-related information, and used E-mail services on their mobile phone to communicate with others (26.7%)
Summary
Mobile health (mHealth) has good potential for promoting self-care in patients suffering from chronic diseases. The present study was conducted to investigate the asthma patients’ use of mobile phone functionalities and their desire to receive self-care services through this technology. Given the increasing worldwide use of smartphones, mobile health (mHealth) technologies can work as promising tools to improve self-care in patients with asthma by providing support services such as communication information, providing learning materials, and sending reminders for behavior change [13, 14]. Evidence shows that mHealth tools, including short message service (SMS), applications (apps) and other related technologies, provide a good opportunity for improving patient communications and health care provision [15,16,17,18,19,20]. Ease of use, portability and ubiquity in all regions are the potential benefits of mHealth tools for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care of diseases and increasing the access to health services and reducing the costs incurred [21]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
