Readiness of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) to Use Mobile Health Technology

Background: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a progressive disease of the central nervous system that has negative impacts on the quality of patient’s life. This disease is one of the most chronic disabling neurological diseases in young adults. The progress of this disease is unique and unpredictable. Self-care is one of the processes which is used to control and prevent the progression of the disease. Some technologies such as mobile health can be used to improve monitoring and self-care in MS patients. Success in using this technology requires acceptance and readiness of the patients. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the readiness of MS patients to use mobile health technology. Materials/Patients and Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study that was conducted in 2016. Participants were MS patients who were referring to the MS clinic in Kerman city. We used convenient sampling method to recruit patients referred to the MS clinic during the study period. Data collection tool for this study was a questionnaire which its validity confirmed by three experts in the fields of medical informatics and health information technology and its reliability coefficient was calculated 73%. Results: In total 47 patients participated in the study. More than 55% of them had an academic degree. More than 57% of the patients had not heard about mobile health technology yet. More than 98% of patients stated that if the technology is being free for them they are interested to use it, as well as the same percentage of patients were feeling comfortable in terms of controlling their health situation by physicians or nurses via mobile phone. Also more than 93% of these patients believed that the use of this technology can participate in effective communication with their physician. About 96% of patients agreed that the use of this technology can help them to recall their medical orders. Conclusion: According to the results, patients were interested and have the adequate readiness to use mobile health technology. This technology can improve self-care of MS patients through effective communication between patients and health care providers. Also this technology can help patients to recall their physicians’ advices and orders and therefore increase their adherence.