Identifying self-care needs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to design a mobile phone...

Self-care programs based on mobile phone applications facilitate the management and control of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and identifying self-care needs is necessary for designing such programs. This study aims to identify the needs of COPD patients to design a self-care program based on a mobile phone application.

In this multi-method study, the self-care needs of COPD patients were identified with two approaches: literature review and quantitative content analysis. Articles were extracted through a comprehensive review of studies from the past 10 years. Self-care needs were identified via semi-structured interviews with 18 participants.

In the literature review, out of 1,671 articles retrieved, 27 were selected by removing duplicate and unrelated articles. In the qualitative research, three categories of educational needs were identified: the maintenance of psycho-emotional health, physical health, and effective communication and support. After combining the extracted needs, the patients' self-care requirements were categorized into three areas: physical health, enhancement and promotion of psycho-emotional well-being, and effective communication and connection with healthcare professionals, family, friends, and community.

The needs identified in the present study were divided into three groups: the need to improve and enhance psycho-emotional status; the need to improve physical status; and the need to establish effective communication with healthcare professionals, family members, and community; which can be used in designing a self-care program based on a mobile application.