A smart phone application in improving healthy lifestyles and health outcomes for school-age children with asthma

摘要

Asthma is a complex multifactorial disease, increasing evidence shows that environmental and lifestyle factors may modify epigenetic mechanism of asthma development. Hence, the monitoring of asthma is essential for disease control and management. As mobile health technology has been widely applied in the prevention and management of health problem, smart phone applications (apps) providing social connection offer a potentially powerful approach to behavioral change through delivering convenient tailored intervention. However, there is limited evidence supporting apps can improve asthma self-management. Hence, the purposes of this study were to (1) develop an age-appropriate tailored KidsHealth app to improve healthy lifestyles for school-age children with asthma; (2) evaluate the feasibility and accessibility of interventions of the app; and (3) investigate the effectiveness of the app in improving healthy behaviors and outcomes for the users.