A SMARTPHONE-APP INTERVENTION TO BUILD HEALTH LITERACY SKILLS IN PEOPLE LIVING WITH KIDNEY FAILURE REQUIRING HAEMODIALYSIS – A FEASIBILTY STUDY

J ISAUTIER1, S  ZWI1, K LAMBERT2, H  SHEPHERD3, K MCCAFFERY1, N DE LA MATA1, K SUD4, E O’LONE5, J SAUNDERS6, N LIU7, S CHANDOLU7, J KIM7, A ROBBINS, A  WEBSTER1, D MUSCAT1

1Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 2Discipline of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia, 3School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 4Nepean Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 5Department of Renal Medicine, Royal North Shore Hospital, Northern Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, Australia, 6Department of Renal Medicine, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, Australia, 7School of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering and IT, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Aim: Determine the feasibility and acceptability of an app-based intervention to build health literacy skills.
Background: Although, education programs for patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) are standard practice, no models of care exist to improve global health literacy skills, nor specifically target culturally and linguistically diverse groups.
Methods: Adults over 18 undertaking haemodialysis were invited to use the SUCCESS App for 12 weeks. Measurements included the Health Literacy Questionnaire and the mHealth app usability questionnaire (MAUQ; 7-point scale – 1: strongly disagree, 7: strongly agree).
Results: Our recruitment strategy was successful in reaching diverse patients (N = 98), nearly half of the participants were born outside of Australia (48%) and had limited health literacy (47%). Despite interruption due to Covid-19, 58.2% of participants completed the study. There was statistically significant improvement in the ability to actively engage with healthcare providers post-intervention (pre: 20.5±3.5, post: 21.1±3.7, P = 0.006). Thirty-nine participants completed the MAUQ and most participants agreed that the app; was useful for their health and wellbeing 6 (IQR:  3), felt comfortable using it 6 (IQR: 2), would use it again 6 (IQR: 2.5) and were satisfied with it 6 (IQR: 2). Participants neither agreed or disagreed that the app could improve their access to healthcare services 4 (IQR: 3), somewhat agreed that it could help manage their health 5 (IQR: 3) and strongly agreed that they would recommend it to a friend 7 (IQR: 1.5).
Conclusions: This study showed that it was feasible to use an app as a model of care to build health literacy for patients with CKD. The SUCCESS app was acceptable and may help build some health literacy skills.


Biography:
I am a Trial Coordinator in the Sydney Health Literacy Lab, School of Public Health at the University of Sydney. I have a Bachelor of Exercise Science and a Master of Nutrition & Dietetics. The aim of my project is to use a smartphone App (the SUCCESS app) to support participation in decision-making for adults with kidney failure who are receiving dialysis, including those from culturally and linguistically-diverse (CALD) backgrounds and/or with lower health literacy.

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