Effect of mHealth Training on Treatment Adherence in Hemodialysis Patients

Background: Technological advancements and ease of communicating with and educating patients with kidney failure using various technologies have facilitated the achievement of treatment goals. Objectives: The present study aimed to examine the effect of mHealth training on treatment adherence in hemodialysis patients in Zahedan. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 80 hemodialysis patients admitted to teaching hospitals in Zahedan in 2022. The participants were selected using convenience sampling and were divided into two intervention and control groups by allocation with permutation blocks. In addition to routine training, the participants in the intervention group received mHealth training in five areas of treatment adherence using a smartphone application (My Dialysis) developed by the researcher. The participants in the control group received only routine training. The data were collected by a demographic information form, the Media Literacy Questionnaire, and the End-Stage Renal Disease Adherence Questionnaire (ESRD-AQ) in both groups before and three months after the intervention. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS (version 26) using the paired and independent samples t-test, chi-square test, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) at the significance level of less than 0.05 (P < 0.05). Results: The mean treatment adherence score for the patients in the control group increased from 1011.87 ± 150.96 before the intervention to 1110.62 ± 86.95 after the intervention, showing a significant increase (P < 0.001). Besides, the mean treatment adherence score for the patients in the intervention group increased significantly from 1067.50 ± 122.24 before the intervention to 1161.25 ± 49.98 after the intervention (P > 0.001). The results of ANCOVA to control for the significant effect of the pretest scores and the disease duration showed that the patients' mean treatment adherence scores in the two groups significantly differed after the intervention (P < 0.05). Conclusions: This study confirmed the significant positive effects of mHealth training on the treatment adherence of dialysis patients. Thus, considering the effectiveness of routine training, mHealth training can be used with routine training in treatment programs for hemodialysis patients to improve their treatment adherence.