Experience of Using an App in HIV Patients Older Than 60 Years: Pilot Program

Abstract

BackgroundNew technologies can promote knowledge of HIV infection among patients suffering from this disease. Older patients with HIV infection represent an increasingly large group that could benefit from the use of specific apps.ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to observe the acceptability and use of a mobile app on HIV infection in patients at least 60 years old and offer them the possibility of anonymously establishing contact with their peers.MethodsA series of clinical and psychosocial parameters were studied in 30 HIV-infected patients of over 60 years. The patients must be at least 60 years old, with a follow-up in the outpatient clinic for at least 1 year and without pathologies that limit his or her life expectancy to less than a year. They must know how to read and write. To be part of the group assigned to the app, they had to have their own smartphone and confirm that they were connected to the internet from that device. Overall, 15 of them were randomized to use an app and 15 were in the control group. All tests were repeated after 6 months.ResultsThe median age of patients was 66.5 years. Among them, 29 patients had an undetectable viral load at baseline. The median number of comorbid diseases was 2. Overall, 11 of them lived with their partners and 19 lived alone. They spent an average of 5 hours a day sitting down, and 56% (17/30) of them referred high physical activity. They scored 4 out of 5 for general quality of life perception. Moreover, 80% (24/30) presented high adherence to their treatment, and the average number of concomitant medications was 5. In the 6-min walking test, they covered a distance of 400 meters, and 3 of them desaturated during the test. The 15 patients made frequent use of the app, with 2407 sessions and an average of 7 min and 56 seconds time of use with a total of 13,143 screen views. During the 6 months of the trial, 3 non-AIDS events took place. There were no significant modifications to body mass index, blood pressure measurements, lipid profile, or immuno-virology information data. There were no differences in the questionnaire scores for perception of quality of life, confessed physical activity, or antiretroviral treatment (ART) and non-ART treatment adherence.ConclusionsSignificant differences between studied parameters were not objectified in these patients, possibly because this trial has significant limitations, such as a small sample size and only a brief follow-up period. However, patients did use the app frequently, making this a possible intervention to be proposed in future subsequent studies.

Attitudes, Beliefs, and Willingness Toward the Use of mHealth Tools for Medication Adherence in the Florida mHealth Adherence Project for People Living With HIV (FL-mAPP): Pilot Questionnaire Study

“…There is scant literature on the acceptability of a ready-made, commercially available mHealth platform for addressing ART adherence. Further, there are scant data on PLWH aged above 55 years who may not be as likely to own smartphones and may have limitations to data and internet access [29,30]. Therefore, today’s inclusive mHealth platforms also need to include SMS messaging (texting) in partnership with apps that require internet access in order to reach vulnerable populations, known as “biprogrammatic”; we define this term as an app program that functions with both smartphone and texting-only (ie, feature or “flip” phone) platforms.…”

mHealth Interventions to Promote Anti-Retroviral Adherence in HIV: Narrative Review (Preprint)

“…In addition, a number of nonquantitative or nonexperimental studies were conducted to investigate the nature of optimal interventions. These are summarized in Table 2 [71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84].…”

“…Design-related studies indicated the themes that interventions should be customizable, provide disease information, and maintain confidentiality [71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84]. A reminder intervention seems to be acceptable in the patients studied [76,77,80,82].…”

A Telemedicine-Based Registration System for the Management of Renal Anemia in Patients on Maintenance Hemodialysis: Multicenter Study

“…Recently, there has been mounting evidence of the feasibility of smartphone apps in remote monitoring and flexible follow-up of patients in western countries [8-10]. However, the experience of using a smartphone app in the management of chronic diseases in China is limited.…”