Information Support Provided by Specialized Nurses via Mobile Healthcare App May Improve Treatment Adherence of Breast Cancer Patients: An Observational Study

Objectives: Mobile devices facilitate the healthcare management of breast cancer. Meanwhile, specialist nurses play an important role in disease management. We established a smartphone-based app that enables patients to raise questions to specialist nurses. We aimed to evaluate whether the information support provided by specialist nurses via smartphone app could improve the treatment adherence of breast cancer patients. Data Source: Breast cancer patients who received surgery and registered for the app between March 2013 and April 2020 were included. Data related to the use of the app, the number of raised questions, and the specific content of each question were retrieved. Overall, 2675 patients were included, with 560 patients raising questions to specialist nurses via the app. Patients with higher educational levels, postmenopause status, and more advanced diseases were more likely to seek informational support via a smartphone app. The treatment adherence was 86.4%. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that raising questions was associated with better compliance. Regarding the distribution of questions, 78.8% of patients had questions about the treatment schedule and procedure, 65.9% of patients had questions during the adjuvant treatment, and only 19.6% of patients raised questions about follow-up and rehabilitation. After a median follow-up of 44 months, there was no survival difference between patients who raised questions and those who did not. Conclusion: Seeking information support from specialist nurses was associated with better treatment adherence. The smartphone-based healthcare app enables specialist nurses to provide more conducive service for patients, and validation of this finding in further studies is warranted. Implications for Nursing Practice: Breast cancer patients were more interested in problems with treatment procedures and schedules. Those who asked questions had better treatment adherence. The smartphonebased app could not only provide patients with a platform to seek information support but also help specialist nurses understand the needs of patients. (c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Automated summary

This study aimed to evaluate whether the information support provided by specialist nurses via a smartphone app could improve the treatment adherence of breast cancer patients. The findings showed that seeking information support from specialist nurses was associated with better treatment adherence. Patients were more interested in problems with treatment procedures and schedules, and those who asked questions had better treatment adherence.