TY - JOUR
T1 - Detecting Acute Otitis Media Symptom Episodes Using a Mobile App
T2 - Cohort Study
AU - Prins-Van Ginkel, Annemarijn C.
AU - de Hoog, Marieke L.A.
AU - Uiterwaal, C.
AU - Smit, Henriette A.
AU - Bruijning-Verhagen, Patricia C.J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Annemarijn C Prins-van Ginkel, Marieke LA de Hoog, C Uiterwaal, Henriette A Smit, Patricia CJ Bruijning-Verhagen.
PY - 2017/11/28
Y1 - 2017/11/28
N2 - Background: Population cohort studies are useful to study infectious diseases episodes not attended by health care services, but conventional paper diaries and questionnaires to capture cases are prone to noncompliance and recall bias. Use of smart technology in this setting may improve case finding. Objective: The objective of our study was to validate an interactive mobile app for monitoring occurrence of acute infectious diseases episodes in individuals, independent of health care seeking, using acute otitis media (AOM) symptom episodes in infants as a case study. We were interested in determining participant compliance and app performance in detecting and ascertaining (parent-reported) AOM symptom episodes with this novel tool compared with traditional methods used for monitoring study participants. Methods: We tested the InfectieApp research app to detect AOM symptom episodes. In 2013, we followed 155 children aged 0 to 3 years for 4 months. Parents recorded the presence of AOM symptoms in a paper diary for 4 consecutive months and completed additional disease questionnaires when AOM symptoms were present. In 2015 in a similar cohort of 69 children, parents used an AOM diary and questionnaire app instead. Results: During conventional and app-based recording, 93.13% (17,244/18,516) and 94.56% (7438/7866) of symptom diaries were returned, respectively, and at least one symptom was recorded for 32.50% (n=5606) and 43.99% (n=3272) of diary days (P<.01). The incidence of AOM symptom episodes was 605 and 835 per 1000 child-years, respectively. Disease questionnaires were completed for 59% (17/29) of episodes when participants were using conventional recording, compared with 100% (18/18) for app-based recording. Conclusions: The use of the study’s smart diary app improved AOM case finding and disease questionnaire completeness. For common infectious diseases that often remain undetected by health care services, use of this technology can substantially improve the accurateness of disease burden estimates.
AB - Background: Population cohort studies are useful to study infectious diseases episodes not attended by health care services, but conventional paper diaries and questionnaires to capture cases are prone to noncompliance and recall bias. Use of smart technology in this setting may improve case finding. Objective: The objective of our study was to validate an interactive mobile app for monitoring occurrence of acute infectious diseases episodes in individuals, independent of health care seeking, using acute otitis media (AOM) symptom episodes in infants as a case study. We were interested in determining participant compliance and app performance in detecting and ascertaining (parent-reported) AOM symptom episodes with this novel tool compared with traditional methods used for monitoring study participants. Methods: We tested the InfectieApp research app to detect AOM symptom episodes. In 2013, we followed 155 children aged 0 to 3 years for 4 months. Parents recorded the presence of AOM symptoms in a paper diary for 4 consecutive months and completed additional disease questionnaires when AOM symptoms were present. In 2015 in a similar cohort of 69 children, parents used an AOM diary and questionnaire app instead. Results: During conventional and app-based recording, 93.13% (17,244/18,516) and 94.56% (7438/7866) of symptom diaries were returned, respectively, and at least one symptom was recorded for 32.50% (n=5606) and 43.99% (n=3272) of diary days (P<.01). The incidence of AOM symptom episodes was 605 and 835 per 1000 child-years, respectively. Disease questionnaires were completed for 59% (17/29) of episodes when participants were using conventional recording, compared with 100% (18/18) for app-based recording. Conclusions: The use of the study’s smart diary app improved AOM case finding and disease questionnaire completeness. For common infectious diseases that often remain undetected by health care services, use of this technology can substantially improve the accurateness of disease burden estimates.
KW - Acute otitis media
KW - Cohort studies
KW - Communicable diseases
KW - Infectious diseases
KW - Mobile app
KW - Mobile applications
KW - Otitis media
KW - Patient compliance
KW - Smartphone
KW - Underreporting
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084783690&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2196/mhealth.7505
DO - 10.2196/mhealth.7505
M3 - Article
C2 - 29183869
SN - 2291-5222
VL - 5
JO - JMIR mHealth and uHealth
JF - JMIR mHealth and uHealth
IS - 11
M1 - e181
ER -