Assessing the Efficacy of an Educational Smartphone or Tablet App With Subdivided and Interactive Content to Increase Patients’ Medical Knowledge: Randomized Controlled Trial
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Modern health care focuses on shared decision making (SDM) because of its positive effects on patient satisfaction, therapy compliance, and outcomes. Patients' knowledge about their illness and available treatment options, gained through medical education, is one of the key drivers for SDM. Current patient education relies heavily on medical consultation and is known to be ineffective. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine whether providing patients with information in a subdivided, categorized, and interactive manner via an educational app for smartphone or tablet might increase the knowledge of their illness. METHODS: A surgeon-blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted with 213 patients who were referred to 1 of the 6 Dutch hospitals by their general practitioner owing to knee complaints that were indicative of knee osteoarthritis. An interactive app that, in addition to standard care, actively sends informative and pertinent content to patients about their illness on a daily basis by means of push notifications in the week before their consultation. The primary outcome was the level of perceived and actual knowledge that patients had about their knee complaints and the relevant treatment options after the intervention. RESULTS: In total, 122 patients were enrolled in the control group and 91 in the intervention group. After the intervention, the level of actual knowledge (measured on a 0-36 scale) was 52% higher in the app group (26.4 vs 17.4, P<.001). Moreover, within the app group, the level of perceived knowledge (measured on a 0-25 scale) increased by 22% during the week within the app group (from 13.5 to 16.5, P<.001), compared with no gain in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Actively offering patients information in a subdivided (per day), categorized (per theme), and interactive (video and quiz questions) manner significantly increases the level of perceived knowledge and demonstrates a higher level of actual knowledge, compared with standard care educational practices. TRIAL REGISTRATION: International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number ISRCTN98629372; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN98629372 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/73F5trZbb).
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The same educational app improved perceived knowledge by 22%.
“The app improved the level of actual disease-related knowledge at clinical attendance by 52% and the perceived knowledge by 22%.”
From What is the clinical value of mHealth for patients? (2020) · cites this paper as [25]
An educational app with structured interactive content improved the level of actual disease-related knowledge at clinical attendance by 52% in patients with knee pain.
“The app improved the level of actual disease-related knowledge at clinical attendance by 52% and the perceived knowledge by 22%.”
From What is the clinical value of mHealth for patients? (2020) · cites this paper as [25]
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What is the clinical value of mHealth for patients?
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Timmers, T., Janssen, L., Pronk, Y., van der Zwaard, B. C., Koëter, S., van Oostveen, D., de Boer, S., Kremers, K., Rutten, S., Das, D., van Geenen, R. C., Koenraadt, K. L., Kusters, R., & van der Weegen, W.
- Affiliations
- Radboud University Medical Center (NL)
- VieCuri Medisch Centrum (NL)
- Kliniek ViaSana (NL)
- Canisius-Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis (NL)
- St. Anna Ziekenhuis (NL)
- Amphia Ziekenhuis (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Timmers, Thomas
- ORCID
- Venue
- JMIR mHealth and uHealth
- Publisher
- JMIR Publications Inc.
- Published
- 2018-12-21
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- e10742
- ISSN
- 2291-5222 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6320423
- OpenAlex
- W2905916649
- Cited by
- 59
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2025: 6 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 3 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 8.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- JMIR mhealth and uhealth (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- TU/e Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- TU/e Research Portal (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- DSpace (Open University in the Netherlands) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DSpace (Open University in the Netherlands) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- TU/e Research Portal (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Mobile Learning in Education
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare
- Keywords
- patient education, mobile health apps, shared decision-making, knee osteoarthritis, patient knowledge, push notifications, interactive learning materials, perceived knowledge, actual knowledge
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