Abstract CN8
Background
Caregivers of children with cancer in Vietnam often have limited knowledge about diseases, treatment options and side effects, which may lead to insufficient home care and worse clinical outcomes. We created a mobile app called HBU to provide accurate information about cancer and cancer treatments in Vietnamese language. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the app in public hospital settings.
Methods
A 3-month intervention was delivered at the Department of Oncology-Hematology-Stem cell Transplantation, Peadiatric Center of Hue Central Hospital, Vietnam via HBU app providing cancer-related articles and symptom-oriented articles. The inclusion criteria were caregivers of children with cancer receiving treatment at this tertiary hospital who aged 18 and above with no impairment in reading comprehension and cognitive abilities. Furthermore, participants must use a smartphone and agreed to participate with a written informed consent. This single-arm clinical study used mixed methods to evaluate the intervention. Acceptability and feasibility were examined via tracking of implementation process and postintervention satisfaction survey. Preliminary efficacy was assessed via a specific questionnaire and the E-FACT-G scale to compare knowledge and distress management before and after intervention.
Results
From June 2020 to December 2020, 61 caregivers were included in this study. Mean age was 33.5 years (SD 6.5, range 21-49); 65.6% were females and 75.4% had low-income (<130 USD/ month). The mobilde app was used by 59% of the caregivers on a daily basis. Via a multidimensional evaluation, 95.1% of caregivers were satisfied with the app. On linear mixed models, knowledge about cancer (β= 1.33; SE=0.15, p < 0.05) and distress management (β= 5.48; SE=0.35; p < 0.05) were significantly improved after the intervention.
Conclusions
The HBU app could ensure equitable access to appropriate information about cancer and cancer treatments, with significant 3-month improvements in knowledge and distress management in caregivers of children with cancer in Vietnam.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
The Terumo Life Science Foundation.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.