10.30699/jambs.30.139.129Background & Objective: Breast cancer patients need a variety of skills and abilities to deal with the consequences of the illness. Self-management is one of the operational strategies that leads to disease acceptance, treatment adherence, and improving the quality of life. The use of smartphone applications (apps) can play a pivotal role in the support and self-management of breast cancer patients. This study aimed to identify the educational contents and technical features of a selfmanagement smartphone app for women with breast cancer in Iran.Materials & Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out in 2020. The statistical population of the study consists of 120 women with breast cancer who were selected via simple random sampling. For data collection, a self-designed questionnaire was developed in which validity and reliability of the questionnaire was measured. The statistical analysis of the data was made using the SPSS software.Results: From the breast cancer patients' point of view, the most important educational contents of the smartphone app. include information acquisition (4.73), lifestyle management (4.65), symptom management (4.43), psychological management (4.01), and compatibility with changes (3.98) respectively. In terms of technical features the most important characteristics were ease of the app. use (4.83), simple visual interface (4.75), security and privacy of information (4.63), reminders (4.55) and the ability to communicate (4.42).
Conclusion:For more effective smartphone apps, educational contents and technical features of apps should be designed based on the needs and preferences of patients. To ensure the use and acceptance of the app., developers should design apps that have technical requirements.
Background
Self-management involves taking responsibility for personal health and taking the initiative to do so. This can be accomplished by learning information and skills that will help consider the difficulties may encounter during and after cancer treatment. With this perspective, we have aimed to develop a self-management mobile app for women with breast cancer in Iran and evaluate its impact on the quality of life of patients.
Method
This study is a methodological study in 2021. We developed the app during three phases. The first phase aimed at identifying educational content and designing user experience, the second phase aimed at developing and implementing the app, and the third phase aimed at evaluating pre-and post-implementation.
Result
In this study, an Android app for self-management women with breast cancer was developed. According to the results of the pre-and post-implementations among the most significant changes were in the quality of life level, highest respectively: social avoidance (Pre: 6.41–Post: 3.56), negative feelings (Pre: 5.93 - Post: 3.40), sexual function (Pre: 6.80 - Post: 5.04), sexual interest (Pre: 6.41 - Post: 4.75) and pain (Pre: 6.37 - Post: 4.97). And least the changes respectively: distress-family (Pre: 7 - Post: 7), distress-recurrence (Pre: 4.49 - Post: 4.38), benefits (Pre: 2.47 - Post: 3.12), appearance (Pre: 4.10 - Post: 3.32). Also, we calculated the usability evaluation of this app with the system usability scale (SUS); the overall rating score was 83/100, an excellent level (> 80.3), and a grade A.
Conclusion
The study shows that a breast cancer self-management app can support and improve the quality of life of women with breast cancer. We conducted this study to show that by developing a self-management app, women with breast cancer can improve their quality of life, − by increasing their self-management skills.
Purpose:
To compare the efficacy and safety of up to two-time administration of 85% TCA, as a promising alternative therapy to conservative and surgical management of grade one to three CINs.
Methods:
In this two-armed randomized clinical trial, a total of 53 patients with biopsy-proven CIN lesions were allocated to two groups of TCA treatment. The first group (n=26) received a single dose of local therapy with 85% TCA while the second group (n=27) was treated on two separate occasions with a two-week interval. Two participants (one in each group) were lost to follow-up. At the two-month follow-up after TCA application, a colposcopy-guided biopsy was performed for all patients and the pathological specimens were studied by a single experienced pathologist to determine the post-intervention grading of CIN.
Results:
Two groups were comparable in terms of age and base-line lesion grading, as CIN 1 lesions comprised the majority of cases (54%), followed by CIN 2(37%). While our sample was a poor representative of CIN3 lesions (7%), no significant difference was noticed between the single and twice TCA treated groups with a response rate of 52% and 54% respectively (either complete remission to normal histology or regression to any low-grade lesion). Either separate analysis (with respect to the base-line grading within each treatment group) or combined analysis (regardless of CIN sub-group) could not generate any statistical significance. The second dose of TCA did not increase the frequency of reported adverse events.
Conclusion:
The second dose of topical 85% TCA does not seem to increase the CIN response rate more so than its single dose. However, further controlled clinical trials with larger samples are warranted to verify current findings. The use of TCA was not limited by any major side effect, therefore, the potential to achieve an increased efficacy with more frequent TCA applications is appealing.
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