Usability and Utility of a Mobile Applet to Improve Medication Adherence Among Cancer Patients in Shanghai: Qualitative Study (Preprint)

Abstract

Medication adherence is crucial to the efficacy of antitumor drugs. The wechat applet, also known as the Mini Program, similar to app but has great advantages. The development and use of wechat applet provide follow-up convenience for cancer patients.

This study aimed to assess the usability and utility of a newly developed medication adherence wechat applet—DolphinCare—among cancer patients in Shanghai.

A qualitative methodology was utilized to obtain an in-depth understanding of users’ experiences when using DolphinCare from the usability and utility aspects. The development phase consisted of two parts: alpha and beta testing. The medication adherence of patients was evaluated using the eight-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8).

We included participants who had an electronic health literacy scale (eHEALS) of ≥50%, and a total of 20 participants were interviewed consecutively. We used the motivation, ability and trigger categories of the Fogg behaviour model to explore why patients adopted and adhered to our applet using data from the qualitative interviews and usage data. There were usabilities and utilities that could improve the patients’ medication adherence and the management of adverse drug reactions (ADRs).

This study provides beginning evidence of the usability and utility of this type of applet in cancer patients.