Adherence to Report and Patient Perception of an Interactive App for Managing Symptoms During Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer: Descriptive Study of Logged and Interview Data

Abstract

BackgroundPatients undergoing radiotherapy for prostate cancer experience symptoms related to both the cancer itself and its treatment, and it is evident that patients with prostate cancer have unmet supportive care needs related to their disease. Over the past decade, there has been an increase in the amount of research within the field of mobile health and the use of apps as tools for managing illness. The main challenge is to develop a mobile technology to its full potential of being interactive in real time. The interactive app Interaktor, which aims to identify and manage symptoms in real time includes (1) a function for patients’ assessment of the occurrence, frequency, and distress of symptoms; (2) a connection to a monitoring Web interface; (3) a risk assessment model that sends alerts via text message to health care providers; (4) continuous access to evidence-based self-care advice and links to relevant websites for more information; and (5) graphs for the patients and health care providers to view the history of symptom reporting.ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to investigate user behavior, adherence to reporting, and the patients’ experiences of using Interaktor during radiotherapy for localized advanced prostate cancer.MethodsThe patients were instructed to report daily during the time of treatment and then for an additional 3 weeks. Logged data from patients’ use of the app were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Interview data about experiences of using the app were analyzed with content analysis.ResultsA total of 66 patients participated in the study. Logged data showed that adherence to daily reporting of symptoms was high (87%). The patients used all the symptoms included in the app. Of the reports, 15.6% generated alerts to the health care providers. Overall, the patients found that it was easy and not particularly time-consuming to send a daily report, and many described it as becoming a routine. Reporting symptoms facilitated reflection on their symptoms and gave them a sense of security. Few technological problems were reported.ConclusionsThe use of Interaktor increased patients’ sense of security and their reflections on their own well-being and thereby served as a supportive tool for the self-management of symptoms during treatment of prostate cancer. Some further development of the app’s content might be beneficial for future use.

Reduced symptom burden with the support of an interactive app during neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer – A randomized controlled trial

“…The adherence to using the app in our study was high despite the long treatment period (submitted for publication). Earlier studies in cohorts using Interaktor show the same high adherence (around 80%), and that the patients perceived the app as easy to use and that it facilitated interaction with health-care professionals and made the patients feel secure and taken care of [ 25 , 26 ].…”

“…Moreover, it is possible to monitor own reported symptom history over time in graphs. Illustrations of the app have been published in the study protocol and in a study on patients with prostate cancer [ 24 , 25 ].…”

“…With the intention to support patients’ symptom management in real time, we developed an interactive app (Interaktor) for early identification and management of symptoms and to facilitate interaction with health-care professionals [ 24 ]. The app is generic and has been shown to be both feasible and acceptable as well as to reduce symptom burden in patients with prostate cancer during radiotherapy, pancreatic cancer following surgery and among older people (>65 years old) receiving home-based health care [ 17 , [25] , [26] , [27] ].…”

Do prostate cancer-related mobile phone apps have a role in contemporary prostate cancer management? A systematic review by EAU young academic urologists (YAU) urotechnology group

“…Of these, one paper was excluded as it was not relevant and a further five papers were removed as they were based on unpublished or unreleased apps (not available in online stores). This left 13 papers for inclusion in our final review [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] (Fig. 1).…”

“…Langius-Eklöf et al [18] tested their app, Interaktor, on prostate cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy, to determine its potential to ease symptom burden. They found high adherence to symptom reporting and realised a novel use for the app for clinicians, to determine the most commonly reported clinical side effects of their patients.…”