Assessing the Need and Acceptance of a Smart Asthma Management Application Among Patients in Saudi Arabia

Digital health technologies can support asthma self-management through symptom tracking, medication reminders, environmental alerts, and communication with healthcare providers. However, evidence regarding patients' perceived needs and acceptance of an integrated smart asthma management application in Saudi Arabia remains limited.

This study aimed to assess perceived need for and intended acceptance of a Saudi-based smart asthma management application among adults with asthma and identify factors associated with their likelihood of using the proposed application.

A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted among adults with asthma in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire assessed asthma self-management experiences, environmental challenges, previous digital health application use, and preferences for proposed application features. Descriptive statistics, Spearman's rank correlations, and ordinal logistic regression were performed. Internal consistency of the five core feature-needs items was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha. The Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate procedure was applied to adjust for multiple correlation comparisons.

A total of 68 adults were included in the final analysis. Overall, 77.9% reported a moderate-to-high need for the proposed application, 58.8% expressed moderate-to-high willingness to use it, and 66.2% indicated that they were likely or very likely to use a Saudi-based smart asthma application. The five core feature-needs items demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.899). Overall perceived need showed the strongest positive correlation with likelihood of use (ρ = 0.709, 95% CI: 0.545-0.844, FDR-adjusted q < 0.001). Significant positive correlations were also observed for environmental alerts (ρ = 0.683), Sehhaty integration (ρ = 0.674), core feature-needs score (ρ = 0.667), perceived environmental burden (ρ = 0.646), and smartwatch connectivity (ρ = 0.590), all q < 0.001. In the adjusted ordinal logistic regression model, perceived environmental burden (aOR = 4.09, 95% CI: 2.09-7.98, p < 0.001) and need for additional asthma-management support (aOR = 3.17, 95% CI: 1.62-6.21, p < 0.001) were independently associated with greater likelihood of intended application use.

Adults with asthma demonstrated substantial perceived need for and willingness to use a Saudi-based smart asthma management application. Perceived environmental burden and need for additional asthma-management support were particularly associated with intended use. These findings support user-centered development and prospective evaluation of an integrated application incorporating contextually relevant asthma self-management and digital health features.