Assessing the Relationship between Age and Clinical Outcomes in Adult Patients Using the ASTHMA-Educator, a Novel Smartphone Application

RATIONALE: There is a lack of published literature regarding subpopulations that benefit from smartphone applications for asthma. This study examines the relationship between age, asthma knowledge, and clinical asthma outcomes in patients that used the ASTHMA-Educator mobile application.

METHODS: 25 adult patients (mean age 53 years) completed the ASTHMA-Educator program via tablet (iPad) at baseline, 2 months, and 4 months. At each visit, patients received the program and we administered the Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire (AKQ), Asthma Control Test (ACT), and Mini-Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (mini-AQLQ). Patients reported the time spent to complete the ASTHMA-Educator. We evaluated patient satisfaction with the application. We assessed relationships between age, AKQ, ACT, mini-AQLQ, and time spent to complete the program using the Pearson’s correlation.

RESULTS: We observed a significant negative correlation between age and patient satisfaction (r=-0.37, p=0.04). At 2 and 4 months, age negatively correlated with mini-AQLQ (r=-0.18, p=0.28; r=-0.33, p=0.11); at both time points, age positively correlated with time spent using the application (r=0.20, p=0.24; r=0.17, p=0.42). Patient satisfaction was positively associated with AKQ score (r=0.23, p=0.21) at 2 months. There were negative correlations between time spent and AKQ score at 2 months and 4 months (r=-0.38, p=0.02; r=-0.33, p=0.11).

CONCLUSIONS: Older patients demonstrated decreased post-intervention asthma quality of life, diminished satisfaction with the intervention, and spent more time using the software program relative to younger participants. We will need to validate these findings on a larger scale, and determine how to adapt the program’s features for older patients.