Abstract
Purpose: To examine feasibility and utilization of a mobile asthma action plan (AAP) among adolescents. Methods: Adolescents (aged 12–17 years) with persistent asthma had their personalized AAP downloaded to a smartphone application. Teens were prompted by the mobile application to record either daily symptoms or peak flow measurements and to record medications. Once data were entered, the application provided immediate feedback based on the teen’s AAP instructions. Asthma Control Test (ACT®) and child asthma self-efficacy scores were examined pre- and post-intervention. Results: Adolescents utilized the mobile AAP a median 4.3 days/week. Participant satisfaction was high with 93% stating that they were better able to control asthma by utilizing the mobile AAP. For participants with uncontrolled asthma at baseline, median (interquartile range) ACT scores improved significantly from 16 (5) to 18 (8) [p = 0.03]. Median asthma attack prevention self-efficacy scores improved from 34 (3.5) to 36 (5.3) [p = 0.04]. Conclusions: Results suggest that personalized mobile-based AAPs are a feasible method to communicate AAP instructions to teens.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.
This project was supported by the Translational Research Institute (TRI), grant UL1TR000039 through the NIH National Center for Research Resources and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. All authors have contributed significantly to the work in this submission.