Development of mobile application to promote self-care in fibromyalgia patients

• Grant number: 14/17547-5
• Support type: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: July 01, 2015 - December 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy
• Principal researcher: Amélia Pasqual Marques
• Grantee: Amélia Pasqual Marques
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Fibromyalgia is a condition of high prevalence, which causes physical discomfort, mental distress and impairment of social relations. With the rise in popularity of Mobile Health, the use of mobile applications should be considered as a resource of support in the treatment of individuals with fibromyalgia. Positive results in clinical trials demonstrate the potential of these applications on behavior change and treatment of specific chronic conditions. There is a lack of applications for Brazilian individuals with fibromyalgia, developed by healthcare professionals, with reliable sources of information and a high degree of functionality, in appropriate language, tested for effectiveness in clinical trials. This project consists of two studies. Study I aims to develop a mobile application to promote self-care of individuals with fibromyalgia, and Study II aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the application in promoting self-care, and improving symptoms and quality of life, and the adherence of patients to the mobile application. The application will be developed according to the prototyping paradigm, in five steps: (1) analysis of requirements and content, and setting of software objectives (performed by a physical therapist, with technical advice from a digital interface designer and a programmer, based on the clinical experience of other physiotherapists, scientific evidence treatment of fibromyalgia and qualitative research conducted with patients); (2) development of the interface by the designer; (3) development of the prototype by the programmer for the Android operating system (Google Inc., Mountain View, CA); (4) pilot test for evaluating the quality of use of the prototype with patients; (5) refinement of the prototype and construction of the final product. Study II will be a randomized controlled trial with 40 individuals with fibromyalgia, allocated in experimental and control groups. Participants will be evaluated at baseline and after six weeks by a blind assessor, regarding the following variables: quality of life (Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire); pain (Generalized Pain index and Visual Analogue Scale); symptoms (scale of Severity of symptoms); agency of self-care (Appraisal of Self Care Agency Scale - Revised). The experimental group will receive smartphones with the mobile application for use during six weeks, and the outcomes will be compared with the control group, which will receive a standard handbook similar in content to the application. Adherence of patients to the usage of the application will be assessed accounting for the number of accesses to its functionalities. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

KING YUAN, SUSAN LEE; COUTO, LETICIA ASSIS; MARQUES, AMELIA PASQUAL. Effects of a six-week mobile app versus paper book intervention on quality of life, symptoms, and self-care in patients with fibromyalgia: a randomized parallel trial. BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL THERAPY, v. 25, n. 4, p. 428-436, JUL-AUG 2021. Web of Science Citations: 0.

YUAN, SUSAN LEE KING; MARQUES, AMELIA PASQUAL. Development of ProFibro - a mobile application to promote self-care in patients with fibromyalgia. PHYSIOTHERAPY, v. 104, n. 3, p. 311-317, SEP 2018. Web of Science Citations: 1.