Design, Development and Evaluation of a Mobile-based Self-Management Application for People Living with HIV

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is one of the most important health issues worldwide that requires new methods of management. Recently, mobile-based application for self-management of people living with HIV is one of the modern solutions to manage this disease. The purpose of this study was to design, development and evaluate a mobile-based self-management application for people living with HIV. This study was a development one that conducted in 2018. The design and development of mobile-based self-management application was carried out based on the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) model and in five stages, including: analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to evaluate the application. The statistical population of this study was all people living with HIV at the Iranian Research Center for HIV/AIDS (IRCHA) in 2018. MYSQL as an open-source relational database system was used to design the database of self-management app. Additionally; the development phase was based on the Android operating system. The results of the evaluation of the usability of the self-management app from the user's perspective showed that "security and reliability" and "motivational and educational impacts" of the app were evaluated as "good". The findings showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between the degree of education of patients with their attitude toward the usability of the self-management app (P = 0.04). Designed mobile-based self-management application can improve medication adherence and quality of life by providing educational information, medication reminding, facilitate communication with healthcare providers, and increasing the motivation of people living with HIV.