Acceptability and practicability of self-management for patients with Parkinson's disease based on smartphone applications in China
Abstract Background China has had about 1.2 billion mobile-phone users and the usage has been still growing, however, mobile-health(m-Health) services are currently in the initial stage and have not yet prevailed. Additionally, the prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD) is 190/100,000 in China, and patients need m-Health to manage their PD. Therefore, this study was designed to determine the attitudes and practicability towards about smartphone applications (APPs) of self-management of chronic condition among the elderly with PD in China.Methods Total 204 participants with PD were selected, from 52 to 87 years, and conducted by attitude surveys concerning using APPs for managing chronic condition via questionnaires.Results Among the total participants, 65.19% subjects had smartphones, and 82.84% ones preferred to use APPs for PD management, who were younger and more frequent web users with higher education standards and better medication compliance as well as longer PD courses and worse conditions of PD, compared with the rest of subjects( P < 0.001, P = 0.001, P < 0.001, P = 0.041, P < 0.001, P = 0.013. Additionally, the preference of patients for the use of the APPs is positively related to education standards( P < 0.001), while negatively related to age and PD course ( P = 0.017, P < 0.001).Conclusion Patients with PD are positive about self-management of smartphone APPs in China. Consequently, improving the coverage of smartphones developing practical and handy APPs would become a novel and promising strategy for PD self-management.