Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 10, 2026
Digital Home-Monitoring of Patients after Kidney Transplantation: The MACCS Platform
Published on: April 12, 2021
Evaluation of a smartphone application for self-care performance of patients with chronic hepatitis B: A randomized
1Department of Nursing, Semyung University, Jecheon, Chungbuk 390-711, Republic of Korea.
Insights
A new smartphone application significantly improved disease knowledge, self-efficacy, and self-care behaviors in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) over 12 weeks.
Area of Science:
- Digital Health
- Hepatology
- Patient Self-Management
Background:
- Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) presents a significant global health challenge.
- Effective self-care is crucial for managing CHB.
- Smartphone applications offer a potential tool for disease self-management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of a smartphone application in enhancing self-care among CHB patients.
- To assess the impact of a mobile health application on CHB patient outcomes.
Main Methods:
- A 12-week randomized controlled trial involving 53 CHB patients.
- Patients were assigned to either a smartphone app intervention group (n=26) or a control group (n=27).
- Assessed changes in disease knowledge, self-efficacy, and self-care behaviors pre- and post-intervention.
Main Results:
- The intervention group demonstrated statistically significant increases in disease knowledge (p=.015).
- Patients using the app showed significant improvements in self-efficacy (p=0.006).
- Self-care behaviors were also significantly enhanced in the app user group (p=0.001).
Conclusions:
- Smartphone applications are effective tools for improving self-care in chronic hepatitis B patients.
- Mobile health interventions can positively impact key self-management metrics for CHB.
Aim:
To verify the usefulness of a smartphone application (App) for facilitating self-care in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB).
Background:
CHB is a global health problem, and patients with CHB need to routinely perform self-care. Health-related smartphone apps could help users self-manage their disease.
Methods:
Fifty-three CHB patients were assessed in this randomized controlled before-and-after experimental study. The patients were randomly and equally assigned to groups that did (n=26) or did not (n=27) use the smartphone app for 12weeks. The experimental and control groups were analyzed for differences in disease knowledge, self-efficacy, and self-care before and after use of the smartphone app.
Results:
After intervention, patients who used the app displayed significantly increased disease knowledge compared with the control group (p=.015). Self-efficacy and self-care also significantly increased in the experimental group (p=0.006 and 0.001, respectively).
Conclusion:
The smartphone app can be useful for increasing self-care in CHB patients.
Abbreviations:
App: application, CHB: chronic hepatitis B, CVI: content validity.
