Smartphone-based Self-management in COPD Patients: A Needs Assessment Survey

A Smartphone-based Self-management Support Program for Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - A Needs Assessment Survey

COPD patients often experience multiple symptoms (e.g. dyspnea, cough, and deteriorating quality of life) and have imposed a substantial economic and social burden on health care.

The current proposal is to explore the information needs of COPD patients and to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a smartphone-based instant messaging self-management support program to improve the quality of life in patients with COPD.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Detailed Description

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the number 3 killer globally by 2020. COPD patients often experience multiple symptoms (e.g. dyspnea, cough, and deteriorating quality of life) and have imposed a substantial economic and social burden on health care.

Current policy for the prevention and management of long-term conditions focuses on efforts to prevent the onset or slow progression of disease early in the disease trajectory. This prevention paradigm has only recently been adopted for COPD. Systematic reviews have shown self-management support for patients with COPD is effective in improving health-related quality of life and in reducing hospital admissions, but the evidence comes largely from patients with moderate or severe disease and is predominantly recruited from secondary care. Simple and systematic strategies are needed to improve out-of-hospital support and management for people living with COPD.

An instant messaging smartphone app, which allows texts, audio, pictures and video messages to be shared in chat groups, is already available to and is the most popular in the Hong Kong general public. Mobile instant messaging can be conducted through a daily use device to increase access and efficacy, which has been suggested as a feasible approach to delivering an intervention with positive effects on health behaviours and outcomes. Text messaging via mobile phones has been shown to be effective in helping promote lifestyle change in diabetes self-management, weight loss, physical activity, smoking cessation and medication adherence with quantitative and qualitative evidence. However, we have not found messaging intervention that was applied in people with COPD, except an ongoing study of using instant text message support for patients with chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

Hence, the current proposal is to use a quantitative survey and qualitative interview exploring the information needs of COPD patients and evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of a smartphone-based instant messaging self-management support program to improve the quality of life in patients with COPD.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 50

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Asa Choi, MA; Phone Number: 852-3917-6563; Email: asachoi@hku.hk
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Agnes YK Lai, PhD; Phone Number: 852-3917-6328; Email: agneslai@hku.hk

Study Locations

• Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
    • Recruiting
    • Queen Mary Hospital
    • Contact: Agnes Lai, PhD; Phone Number: 852-2917-6283
    • Contact: David Lam, PhD; Phone Number: 852-2255-4455; Email: singa@hku.hk

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Patients with COPD

Description

Inclusion criteria

• Aged 18 years and above
• Diagnosis with COPD
• Able to speak and read Chinese
• Able to complete the self-administered questionnaire
• Mental, cognitive and physically fit determined by the clinician or responsible investigator
• Signed informed consent

Exclusion criteria

• Serious active infection
• Severe respiratory insufficiency

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Information and support needs	Information preferences and needs of support measured by outcome-based questions	Baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Patient Activation	Knowledge, skills and confidence in self-management measured by a 13-item Patient Activation Measure	Baseline
Technological literacy	Knowledge and confidence in using instant messaging measured by outcome-based questions	Baseline
Attitude towards smartphone-based intervention	Attitude towards smartphone-based intervention measured by outcome-based questions	Baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Hong Kong

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Hall AK, Cole-Lewis H, Bernhardt JM. Mobile text messaging for health: a systematic review of reviews. Annu Rev Public Health. 2015 Mar 18;36:393-415. doi: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031914-122855.
• Buttery SC, Zysman M, Vikjord SAA, Hopkinson NS, Jenkins C, Vanfleteren LEGW. Contemporary perspectives in COPD: Patient burden, the role of gender and trajectories of multimorbidity. Respirology. 2021 May;26(5):419-441. doi: 10.1111/resp.14032. Epub 2021 Mar 9.
• Jolly K, Sidhu MS, Hewitt CA, Coventry PA, Daley A, Jordan R, Heneghan C, Singh S, Ives N, Adab P, Jowett S, Varghese J, Nunan D, Ahmed K, Dowson L, Fitzmaurice D. Self management of patients with mild COPD in primary care: randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2018 Jun 13;361:k2241. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k2241.
• Redfern J, Hyun K, Singleton A, Hafiz N, Raeside R, Spencer L, Carr B, Caterson I, Cullen J, Ferry C, Santo K, Hayes A, Leung RWM, Raadsma S, Swinbourne J, Cho JG, King M, Roberts M, Kok C, Jenkins C, Chow C. ITM support for patients with chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases: a protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. 2019 Mar 1;9(3):e023863. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023863.

Helpful Links

• The top 10 causes of death

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): December 31, 2022
• Study Completion (Anticipated): December 31, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 27, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 27, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): December 9, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 13, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 11, 2022
• Last Verified: April 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: COPD; Support; Self-management; Digital; Smartphone-based
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Respiratory Tract Diseases; Lung Diseases; Lung Diseases, Obstructive; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive
• Other Study ID Numbers: UW21-532-1

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Need to obtain consent from patients before agreeing to share individual participants data.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: When study finished
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: The minimal anonymized dataset will be available upon request to interested researchers. For interested researchers, please contact, Ms Asa Choi (email asachoi@hku.hk), (School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong) for further information.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No