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Development and Long-Term Acceptability of ExPRESS, a Mobile Phone App to Monitor Basic Symptoms and Early Signs of Psychosis Relapse.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Schizophrenia relapses are common, have profound, adverse consequences for patients and are costly to health services. Early signs interventions aim to use warning signs of deterioration to prevent full relapse. Such interventions show promise but could be further developed. This study addresses 2 developments: adding basic symptoms to checklists of conventional early signs and using a mobile phone app ExPRESS to aid early signs monitoring. OBJECTIVE:This study aimed to (1) design a pool of self-report items assessing basic symptoms (Basic Symptoms Checklist, BSC); (2) develop and beta test a mobile phone app (ExPRESS) for monitoring early signs, basic symptoms, and psychotic symptoms; and (3) evaluate the long-term acceptability of ExPRESS via qualitative feedback from participants in a 6-month feasibility study. METHODS:The BSC items and ExPRESS were developed and then adjusted following feedback from beta testers (n=5) with a schizophrenia diagnosis. Individuals (n=18) experiencing a relapse of schizophrenia within the past year were asked to use ExPRESS for 6 months to answer weekly questions about experiences of early signs, basic symptoms, and psychotic symptoms. At the end of follow-up, face-to-face qualitative interviews (n=16; 2 were uncontactable) explored experiences of using ExPRESS. The topic guide sought participants' views on the following a priori themes regarding app acceptability: item content, layout, and wording; app appearance; length and frequency of assessments; worries about app use; how app use fitted with participants' routines; and the app's extra features. Interview transcripts were analyzed using the framework method, which allows examination of both a priori and a posteriori themes, enabling unanticipated aspects of app use experiences to be explored. RESULTS:Participants' mean age was 38 years (range 22-57 years). Responses to a priori topics indicated that long-term use of ExPRESS was acceptable; small changes for future versions of ExPRESS were suggested. A posteriori themes gave further insight into individuals' experiences of using ExPRESS. Some reported finding it more accessible than visits from a clinician, as assessments were more frequent, more anonymous, and did not require the individual to explain their feelings in their own words. Nevertheless, barriers to app use (eg, unfamiliarity with smartphones) were also reported. Despite ExPRESS containing no overtly therapeutic components, some participants found that answering the weekly questions prompted self-reflection, which had therapeutic value for them. CONCLUSIONS:This study suggests that apps are acceptable for long-term symptom monitoring by individuals with a schizophrenia diagnosis across a wide age range. If the potential benefits are understood, patients are generally willing and motivated to use a weekly symptom-monitoring app; most participants in this study were prepared to do so for more than 6 months. TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03558529; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03558529 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/70qvtRmZY).

SUBMITTER: Eisner E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6460313 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Development and Long-Term Acceptability of ExPRESS, a Mobile Phone App to Monitor Basic Symptoms and Early Signs of Psychosis Relapse.

Eisner Emily E Drake Richard James RJ Berry Natalie N Barrowclough Christine C Emsley Richard R Machin Matthew M Bucci Sandra S

JMIR mHealth and uHealth 20190329 3

<h4>Background</h4>Schizophrenia relapses are common, have profound, adverse consequences for patients and are costly to health services. Early signs interventions aim to use warning signs of deterioration to prevent full relapse. Such interventions show promise but could be further developed. This study addresses 2 developments: adding basic symptoms to checklists of conventional early signs and using a mobile phone app ExPRESS to aid early signs monitoring.<h4>Objective</h4>This study aimed to ...[more]

PMID: 30924789

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Project description:BackgroundRelapse is a common experience for people diagnosed with psychosis, which is associated with increased service costs and profound personal and familial distress. EMPOWER (Early signs Monitoring to Prevent relapse in psychosis and prOmote Well-being, Engagement, and Recovery) is a peer worker-supported digital intervention that aims to enable service users to self-monitor their mental health with the aim of encouraging self-management and the shared use of personal data to promote relapse prevention. Digital interventions have not been widely used in relapse prevention and, therefore, little is currently known about their likely implementation-both within trials and beyond.ObjectiveSeeking the perspectives of all relevant stakeholder groups is recommended in developing theories about implementation because this can reveal important group differences in understandings and assumptions about whether and for whom the intervention is expected to work. However, the majority of intervention implementation research has been retrospective. This study aimed to discover and theoretically frame implementation expectations in advance of testing and synthesize these data into a framework.MethodsTo develop a hypothetical implementation framework, 149 mental health professionals, carers, and people diagnosed with psychosis participated in 25 focus groups in both Australia and the United Kingdom. An interview schedule informed by the normalization process theory was used to explore stakeholders' expectations about the implementation of the EMPOWER intervention. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and then theoretically framed using the Medical Research Council guidelines for understanding the implementation of complex interventions.ResultsAll groups expected that EMPOWER could be successfully implemented if the intervention generated data that were meaningful to mental health staff, carers, and service users within their unique roles. However, there were key differences between staff, carers, and service users about what facilitators and barriers that stakeholders believe exist for intervention implementation in both the cluster randomized controlled trial stage and beyond. For example, service user expectations mostly clustered around subjective user experiences, whereas staff and carers spoke more about the impact upon staff interactions with service users.ConclusionsA hypothetical implementation framework synthesized from stakeholder implementation expectations provides an opportunity to compare actual implementation data gathered during an ongoing clinical trial, giving valuable insights into the accuracy of these stakeholders' previous expectations. This is among the first studies to assess and record implementation expectations for a newly developed digital intervention for psychosis in advance of testing in a clinical trial.Trial registrationISRCTN Registry ISRCTN99559262; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN99559262.

Project description:The PulsePoint Respond app is a novel system that can be implemented in emergency dispatch centers to crowdsource basic life support (BLS) for patients with cardiac arrest and facilitate bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator use while first responders are en route.The aim of this study was to conduct a North American survey to evaluate the public perception of the above-mentioned strategy, including acceptability and willingness to respond to alerts.We designed a Web-based survey administered by IPSOS Reid, an established external polling vendor. Sampling was designed to ensure broad representation using recent census statistics.A total of 2415 survey responses were analyzed (1106 from Canada and 1309 from the United States). It was found that 98.37% (1088/1106) of Canadians and 96% (1259/1309) of Americans had no objections to PulsePoint being implemented in their community; 84.27% (932/1106) of Canadians and 55.61% (728/1309) of Americans said they would download the app to become a potential responder to cardiac arrest, respectively. Among Canadians, those who said they were likely to download PulsePoint were also more likely to have ever had CPR training (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.2-2.4; P=.002); however, this was not true of American respondents (OR 1.0, 95% CI 0.79-1.3; P=.88). When asked to imagine themselves as a cardiac arrest victim, 95.39% (1055/1106) of Canadians and 92.44% (1210/1309) of Americans had no objections to receiving crowdsourced help in a public setting; 88.79% (982/1106) of Canadians and 84.87% (1111/1309) of Americans also had no objections to receiving help in a private setting, respectively. The most common concern identified with respect to PulsePoint implementation was a responder's lack of ability, training, or access to proper equipment in a public setting.The North American public finds the concept of crowdsourcing BLS for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest to be acceptable. It demonstrates willingness to respond to PulsePoint CPR notifications and to accept help from others alerted by the app if they themselves suffered a cardiac arrest.

Project description:BACKGROUND: The use of mobile phones, and specifically smartphones, in the last decade has become more and more prevalent. The latest mobile phones are equipped with comprehensive features that can be used in health care, such as providing rapid access to up-to-date evidence-based information, provision of instant communications, and improvements in organization. The estimated number of health care apps for mobile phones is increasing tremendously, but previous research has highlighted the lack of critical appraisal of new apps. This lack of appraisal of apps has largely been due to the lack of clinicians with technical knowledge of how to create an evidence-based app. OBJECTIVE: We discuss two freely available methodologies for developing Web-based mobile phone apps: a website builder and an app builder. With these, users can program not just a Web-based app, but also integrate multimedia features within their app, without needing to know any programming language. METHODS: We present techniques for creating a mobile Web-based app using two well-established online mobile app websites. We illustrate how to integrate text-based content within the app, as well as integration of interactive videos and rich site summary (RSS) feed information. We will also briefly discuss how to integrate a simple questionnaire survey into the mobile-based app. A questionnaire survey was administered to students to collate their perceptions towards the app. RESULTS: These two methodologies for developing apps have been used to convert an online electronic psychiatry textbook into two Web-based mobile phone apps for medical students rotating through psychiatry in Singapore. Since the inception of our mobile Web-based app, a total of 21,991 unique users have used the mobile app and online portal provided by WordPress, and another 717 users have accessed the app via a Web-based link. The user perspective survey results (n=185) showed that a high proportion of students valued the textbook and objective structured clinical examination videos featured in the app. A high proportion of students concurred that a self-designed mobile phone app would be helpful for psychiatry education. CONCLUSIONS: These methodologies can enable busy clinicians to develop simple mobile Web-based apps for academic, educational, and research purposes, without any prior knowledge of programming. This will be beneficial for both clinicians and users at large, as there will then be more evidence-based mobile phone apps, or at least apps that have been appraised by a clinician.

Project description:BackgroundRelapse in schizophrenia is a major cause of distress and disability and is predicted by changes in symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and suspiciousness (early warning signs [EWSs]). These can be used as the basis for timely interventions to prevent relapse. However, there is considerable uncertainty regarding the implementation of EWS interventions.ObjectiveThis study was designed to establish the feasibility of conducting a definitive cluster randomized controlled trial comparing Early signs Monitoring to Prevent relapse in psychosis and prOmote Well-being, Engagement, and Recovery (EMPOWER) against treatment as usual (TAU). Our primary outcomes are establishing parameters of feasibility, acceptability, usability, safety, and outcome signals of a digital health intervention as an adjunct to usual care that is deliverable in the UK National Health Service and Australian community mental health service (CMHS) settings. We will assess the feasibility of candidate primary outcomes, candidate secondary outcomes, and candidate mechanisms for a definitive trial.MethodsWe will randomize CMHSs to EMPOWER or TAU. We aim to recruit up to 120 service user participants from 8 CMHSs and follow them for 12 months. Eligible service users will (1) be aged 16 years and above, (2) be in contact with local CMHSs, (3) have either been admitted to a psychiatric inpatient service or received crisis intervention at least once in the previous 2 years for a relapse, and (4) have an International Classification of Diseases-10 diagnosis of a schizophrenia-related disorder. Service users will also be invited to nominate a carer to participate. We will identify the feasibility of the main trial in terms of recruitment and retention to the study and the acceptability, usability, safety, and outcome signals of the EMPOWER intervention. EMPOWER is a mobile phone app that enables the monitoring of well-being and possible EWSs of relapse on a daily basis. An algorithm calculates changes in well-being based on participants' own baseline to enable tailoring of well-being messaging and clinical triage of possible EWSs. Use of the app is blended with ongoing peer support.ResultsRecruitment to the trial began September 2018, and follow-up of participants was completed in July 2019. Data collection is continuing. The database was locked in July 2019, followed by analysis and disclosing of group allocation.ConclusionsThe knowledge gained from the study will inform the design of a definitive trial including finalizing the delivery of our digital health intervention, sample size estimation, methods to ensure successful identification, consent, randomization, and follow-up of participants, and the primary and secondary outcomes. The trial will also inform the final health economic model to be applied in the main trial.Trial registrationInternational Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN): 99559262; http://isrctn.com/ISRCTN99559262.International registered report identifier (irrid)DERR1-10.2196/15058.

Project description:BackgroundAdvancements in mobile technology allow innovative data collection techniques such as measuring time use (ie, how individuals structure their time) for the purpose of improving health behavior change interventions.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to examine the acceptability of a 5-day trial of the Life in a Day mobile phone app measuring time use in breast cancer survivors to advance technology-based measurement of time use.MethodsAcceptability data were collected from participants (N=40; 100% response rate) using a self-administered survey after 5 days of Life in a Day use.ResultsOverall, participants had a mean age of 55 years (SD 8) and completed 16 years of school (SD 2). Participants generally agreed that learning to use Life in a Day was easy (83%, 33/40) and would prefer to log activities using Life in a Day over paper-and-pencil diary (73%, 29/40). A slight majority felt that completing Life in a Day for 5 consecutive days was not too much (60%, 24/40) or overly time-consuming (68%, 27/40). Life in a Day was rated as easy to read (88%, 35/40) and navigate (70%, 32/40). Participants also agreed that it was easy to log activities using the activity timer at the start and end of an activity (90%, 35/39). Only 13% (5/40) downloaded the app on their personal phone, whereas 63% (19/30) of the remaining participants would have preferred to use their personal phone. Overall, 77% (30/39) of participants felt that the Life in a Day app was good or very good. Those who agreed that it was easy to edit activities were significantly more likely to be younger when compared with those who disagreed (mean 53 vs 58 years, P=.04). Similarly, those who agreed that it was easy to remember to log activities were more likely to be younger (mean 52 vs 60 years, P<.001). Qualitative coding of 2 open-ended survey items yielded 3 common themes for Life in a Day improvement (ie, convenience, user interface, and reminders).ConclusionsA mobile phone app is an acceptable time-use measurement modality. Improving convenience, user interface, and memory prompts while addressing the needs of older participants is needed to enhance app utility.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT00929617; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00929617 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6z2bZ4P7X).

Project description:BackgroundInternalizing disorders are the most common psychiatric problems observed among youth in Canada. Sadly, youth with internalizing disorders often avoid seeking clinical help and rarely receive adequate treatment. Current methods of assessing internalizing disorders usually rely on subjective symptom ratings, but internalizing symptoms are frequently underreported, which creates a barrier to the accurate assessment of these symptoms in youth. Therefore, novel assessment tools that use objective data need to be developed to meet the highest standards of reliability, feasibility, scalability, and affordability. Mobile sensing technologies, which unobtrusively record aspects of youth behaviors in their daily lives with the potential to make inferences about their mental health states, offer a possible method of addressing this assessment barrier.ObjectiveThis study aims to explore whether passively collected smartphone sensor data can be used to predict internalizing symptoms among youth in Canada.MethodsIn this study, the youth participants (N=122) completed self-report assessments of symptoms of anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Next, the participants installed an app, which passively collected data about their mobility, screen time, sleep, and social interactions over 2 weeks. Then, we tested whether these passive sensor data could be used to predict internalizing symptoms among these youth participants.ResultsMore severe depressive symptoms correlated with more time spent stationary (r=0.293; P=.003), less mobility (r=0.271; P=.006), higher light intensity during the night (r=0.227; P=.02), and fewer outgoing calls (r=-0.244; P=.03). In contrast, more severe anxiety symptoms correlated with less time spent stationary (r=-0.249; P=.01) and greater mobility (r=0.234; P=.02). In addition, youths with higher anxiety scores spent more time on the screen (r=0.203; P=.049). Finally, adding passively collected smartphone sensor data to the prediction models of internalizing symptoms significantly improved their fit.ConclusionsPassively collected smartphone sensor data provide a useful way to monitor internalizing symptoms among youth. Although the results replicated findings from adult populations, to ensure clinical utility, they still need to be replicated in larger samples of youth. The work also highlights intervention opportunities via mobile technology to reduce the burden of internalizing symptoms early on.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Gait disorders are common among older adults. With an increase in the use of technology among older adults, a mobile phone app provides a solution for older adults to self-monitor their gait quality in daily life. OBJECTIVE:This study aimed to develop a gait-monitoring mobile phone app (Pocket Gait) and evaluate its acceptability and usability among potential older users. METHODS:The app was developed to allow older adults to track their gait quality, including step frequency, acceleration root mean square (RMS), step regularity, step symmetry, and step variability. We recruited a total of 148 community-dwelling older adults aged 60 years and older from two cities in China: Beijing and Chongqing. They walked in three ways (single task, dual task, and fast walking) using a smartphone with the gait-monitoring app installed and completed an acceptability and usability survey after the walk test. User acceptability was measured by a questionnaire including four quantitative measures: perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, ease of learning, and intention to use. Usability was measured using the System Usability Scale (SUS). Interviews were conducted with participants to collect open-ended feedback questions. RESULTS:Task type had a significant effect on all gait parameters, namely, step frequency, RMS, step variability, step regularity, and step symmetry (all P values <.001). Age had a significant effect on step frequency (P=.01), and region had a significant effect on step regularity (P=.04). The acceptability of the gait-monitoring app was positive among older adults. Participants identified the usability of the system with an overall score of 59.7 (SD 10.7) out of 100. Older adults from Beijing scored significantly higher SUS compared with older adults from Chongqing (P<.001). The age of older adults was significantly associated with their SUS score (P=.048). Older adults identified improvements such as a larger font size, inclusion of reference values for gait parameters, and inclusion of heart rate and blood pressure monitoring. CONCLUSIONS:This mobile phone app is a health management tool for older adults to self-manage their gait quality and prevent adverse outcomes. In the future, it will be important to take factors such as age and region into consideration while designing a mobile phone-based gait assessment app. The feedback of the participants would help to design more elderly-friendly products. TRIAL REGISTRATION:

Dataset Information

Development and Long-Term Acceptability of ExPRESS, a Mobile Phone App to Monitor Basic Symptoms and Early Signs of Psychosis Relapse.

Publications

Development and Long-Term Acceptability of ExPRESS, a Mobile Phone App to Monitor Basic Symptoms and Early Signs of Psychosis Relapse.

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