Abstract 535P
Background
Introduction: Mobile applications are playing a vital role in the oncology field and their use in breast cancer rehabilitation helps in the prevention and management of symptoms that are often evident with surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Objective: The objective of our study was to determine the effect of mobile app-based support on quality of life of patients with breast cancer after completion of treatment.
Methods
A randomized and single-blinded design was used. Participants were randomly assigned to a control group that receives routine care and the intervention group that receives routine care plus mobile app-based training support for 6 months. Quality of life and symptom distress were measured at baseline (T0), after 3 months (T1), and after 6 months (T2) of intervention. This study has two training combinations: mobile app-based patient education and nurse support over the mobile app. Mobile application support provides information and training for the prevention and management of lymphedema, fatigue, and sexual problems and also has an inbuilt symptom diary for daily recording of the severity of the symptoms.
Results
At baseline, all health-related outcome parameters were comparable in both groups. At 3 months follow-up, quality of life score was better in the app group as compared to the control group. No significant difference was seen in fatigue and sexual problems in any of the groups at 3 months. At 6 months, quality of life, fatigue, and lymphedema were significantly improved in the app group. The majority of the patients reported that the mobile application was “informative and useful”.
Conclusions
This showed that the mobile app is an effective intervention for supportive care in women with breast cancer. The mobile app-based training, a novel intervention, is recommended as a supportive care program for women with breast cancer.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.