Mobile app for parental empowerment for caregivers of children with autism Spectrum disorders: prospective open trial
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Conflicting data emerge from literature regarding the actual use of smartphone apps in medicine; some considered the introduction of smartphone apps in medicine to be a breakthrough, while others suggested that, in real-life, the use of smartphone apps in medicine is disappointingly low. Yet, digital tools become more present in medicine daily. To empower parents of a child with autism spectrum disorder, we developed the Smartautism smartphone app, which asks questions and provides feedback, using a screen with simple curves. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate usage of the app by caregivers of individuals with autism spectrum disorders. METHODS: We conducted a prospective longitudinal exploratory open study with families that have a child with autism spectrum disorder. Data were recorded over a period of 6 months, and the outcome criteria were (1) overall response rates for a feedback screen and qualitative questionnaires, and (2) response rates by degree of completion and by user interest, based on attrition. RESULTS: Participants (n=65) had a very high intent to use the app during the 6-month period (3698/3900 instances, 94.8%); however, secondary analysis showed that only 46% of participants (30/65) had constant response rates over 50%. Interestingly, these users were characterized by higher use and satisfaction with the feedback screen when compared to low (P<.001) and moderate (P=.007) users. CONCLUSIONS: We found that real or perceived utility is an important incentive for parents who use empowerment smartphone apps. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012135.
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Mental health applications hold great potential for supporting caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder and/or intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“In conclusion, MHAs hold great potential for supporting caregivers of children with ASD and/or IDD (55).”
From ProVIA-Kids - outcomes of an uncontrolled study on smartphone-based behaviour analysis for challenging behaviour in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities or autism spectrum disorder (2024) · cites this paper as [55]
The Introduction says digital tools might help families of children with ASD between psychiatric consultations, and the Discussion calls Smartautism an encouraging step for those families. The paper does not establish the same potential for caregivers of children with intellectual or developmental disabilities who do not have ASD. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Flagged first, then by citations
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Cited by
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- Authors
- Bonnot, O., Adrien, V., Venelle, V., Bonneau, D., Gollier-Briant, F., & Mouchabac, S.
- Affiliations
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nantes (FR)
- Inserm (FR)
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Angers (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Bonnot, Olivier
- ORCID
- Venue
- JMIR Mental Health
- Publisher
- JMIR Publications Inc.
- Published
- 2021-09-15
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- e27803
- ISSN
- 2368-7959 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8482191
- OpenAlex
- W3163257149
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 3.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- JMIR Mental Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Agence Régionale de Santé Île-de-France
- Institut pour la Recherche en Santé Publique
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, mobile application, parental empowerment, caregiver support, app usage, user engagement, app satisfaction, digital health tools
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