A Mobile Self-Management App (CanSelfMan) for Children With Cancer and Their Caregivers: Usability and Compatibility Study

Hamed Mehdizadeh; Farkhondeh Asadi; Eslam Nazemi; Azim Mehrvar; Azade Yazdanian; Hassan Emami

doi:10.2196/43867

A Mobile Self-Management App (CanSelfMan) for Children With Cancer and Their Caregivers: Usability and Compatibility Study

JMIR Pediatr Parent. 2023 Mar 30:6:e43867. doi: 10.2196/43867.

Authors

Hamed Mehdizadeh¹, Farkhondeh Asadi², Eslam Nazemi³, Azim Mehrvar⁴, Azade Yazdanian¹, Hassan Emami²

Affiliations

¹ Health Information Technology Department, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
² Health Information Technology and Management Department, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ MAHAK Pediatric Cancer Treatment and Research Center, Tehran, Iran.

PMID: 36995746
PMCID: PMC10132021
DOI: 10.2196/43867

Abstract

Background: Despite the increasing development of different smartphone apps in the health care domain, most of these apps lack proper evaluation. In fact, with the rapid development of smartphones and wireless communication infrastructure, many health care systems around the world are using these apps to provide health services for people without sufficient scientific efforts to design, develop, and evaluate them.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the usability of CanSelfMan, a self-management app that provides access to reliable information to improve communication between health care providers and children with cancer and their parents/caregivers, facilitating remote monitoring and promoting medication adherence.

Methods: We performed debugging and compatibility tests in a simulated environment to identify possible errors. Then, at the end of the 3-week period of using the app, children with cancer and their parents/caregivers filled out the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) to evaluate the usability of the CanSelfMan app and their level of user satisfaction.

Results: During the 3 weeks of CanSelfMan use, 270 cases of symptom evaluation and 194 questions were recorded in the system by children and their parents/caregivers and answered by oncologists. After the end of the 3 weeks, 44 users completed the standard UEQ user experience questionnaire. According to the children's evaluations, attractiveness (mean 1.956, SD 0.547) and efficiency (mean 1.934, SD 0.499) achieved the best mean results compared with novelty (mean 1.711, SD 0.481). Parents/caregivers rated efficiency at a mean of 1.880 (SD 0.316) and attractiveness at a mean of 1.853 (SD 0.331). The lowest mean score was reported for novelty (mean 1.670, SD 0.225).

Conclusions: In this study, we describe the evaluation process of a self-management system to support children with cancer and their families. Based on the feedback and scores obtained from the usability evaluation, it seems that the children and their parents find CanSelfMan to be an interesting and practical idea to provide reliable and updated information on cancer and help them manage the complications of this disease.

Keywords: Digital health; Mobile app; Telehealth; cancer; caregiver; child; eHealth; mHealth; parent; self-management; usability evaluation.

©Hamed Mehdizadeh, Farkhondeh Asadi, Eslam Nazemi, Azim Mehrvar, Azade Yazdanian, Hassan Emami. Originally published in JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting (https://pediatrics.jmir.org), 30.03.2023.