Healthcare App, New Possibility for Asthma Self-Management
Nowadays, digital healthcare applications are helpful in regulating various kinds of patent’s symptoms. However, previous researches regarding effectiveness of digital healthcare applications on asthma were limited and few. Asthma is common disease for Americans, since 8% of American adults has been diagnosed asthma. 60% of them has unregulated asthma. As digital healthcare apps can be helpful,previous study was small and short, leaving question on effectiveness of the app on minority and minority populations. These reasons suggest for need of long, large study which includes various ethnicity groups.
The purpose of this research was to know whether DASM(Digital Asthma Self-Management Program for Adults) can improve on ACT(asthma control test, high score means control of asthma, ranging from 5 to 25, generally: over 20: controlled, below 19: uncontrolled). The researchers processed the result through comparing two groups in the study. It was randomized controlled trial and participants were 901(final analysis 899) and age varied from 18 to 64 who are adult asthma patient. It was conducted for 12 months. DASM group used smartphone, wearable digital device that provided record of symptoms, alarming, educational contents and they were able to get feedbacks and engage in reciprocal relationship On the other hand, control group also received same devices, but they were not able to receive feedbacks and engage in interaction with the app.
To be simplified, as expected, DASM successfully improved self-management for asthma adult patients. However, it was not same for all racial groups, resulting in low score in African Americans, emphasizing need for appropriate measure for African Americans. This study conveys the effectiveness of digital healthcare app, serving as a breakthrough in medical field. In future, we can get treatment or rehabilitation therapy by following instructions on app and interacting with it through its LLM model.
출처: A Digital Asthma Self-Management Program for Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial – PMC
