Impact of a mobile application-based home care nursing program on patients’ quality of life and family burden

Objective

This study aims to identify the effectiveness of a mobile application-based home care nursing service in improving patient quality of life and healthy lifestyle and reducing the family burden.

Methods

This study was a clinical trial with a pre- and post-test control group design. The accessible population in this study was post-discharge patients from general hospitals in West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan, Indonesia, who required home care nursing. We allocated a selected sample of 40 people to the intervention group and 40 people to the control group using a randomized block design. We gave mobile application-based home care nursing to the intervention group and community health nursing care to the control group. This study was conducted in 10 months (January–October 2022). We measure the patient quality of life, healthy lifestyle, and family burden before and 3 months after the intervention.

Results

There was no significant difference in the post-test quality of life between the two groups (p =  0.187), but there was a significant difference in the psychological (p =  0.014) and environmental health (p =  0.021) domain of quality of life. There was no significant difference in the post-test of a healthy lifestyle between the two groups (p =  0.083). There was a significant difference in the post-test family burden between the two groups (p =  0.015).

Conclusion

Mobile Application-Based Home Care Nursing is effective in improving patient quality of life in the psychological and environmental health domains and reducing the family burden for post-discharge patients.