File
Yuan S.L.K.1, Marques A.P.1
1University of Sao Paulo, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy of the School of Medicine, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Background: Fibromyalgia is a condition of high prevalence, which causes physical discomfort, mental distress and impairment of social relations. With the rise in popularity of Mobile Health, the use of mobile applications should be considered as a complementary resource in fibromyalgia management. Positive results in clinical trials demonstrate the potential of these applications on behavior change and treatment of specific chronic conditions. There is a lack of applications for Brazilian patients with fibromyalgia, developed by healthcare professionals, based on reliable sources of information, with a high degree of functionality and a clear, attractive and efficient interface.
Purpose: We aimed to develop a mobile application to promote self-care in patients with fibromyalgia.
Methods: The application was developed in five stages, according to the prototyping paradigm. All stages were conducted by the researchers.
Stage 1: an expert panel of five physiotherapists, five patients with fibromyalgia, a digital interface designer and a programmer analyzed the requirements and content, and set the software objectives;
Stage 2: the designer created the user experience flow diagram, and the preliminary screen layouts, which were assessed regarding their quality of use by ten patients with fibromyalgia. Based on the results, the designer developed the final layout of the screens;
Stage 3: the programmer used the Android Studio integrated development environment (Google Inc., Mountain View, CA) to develop the prototype for the Android operating system (Google Inc., Mountain View, CA), with JAVA programming language (Oracle, Redwood Shores, CA);
Stage 4: the prototype was pilot tested regarding its quality of use with ten patients with fibromyalgia and problems were identified;
Stage 5: the designer improved the interface and the programmer built the final product.
Results: We developed an application named ProFibro for mobile phones with Android version 4.4 or up. The main functions of the application are: education through animation; self-monitoring with the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire; sleep strategies with guided imagery relaxation technique, stimulus control therapy and sleep hygiene; scheduling; exercise; hints through notifications; practice of gratitude with a diary; family adjustments. We planned to include a function that would facilitate activity pacing with a timer; however, due to technical problems and deadlines, we decided to remove it from the first version of the application.
Conclusion(s): ProFibro, a mobile Android application for individuals with fibromyalgia in Brazilian Portuguese, was developed based on scientific evidence, clinical and patient experience.
In a following stage of the research, the efficacy of ProFibro in promoting self-care and improving quality of life and symptoms will be assessed in a single-blinded, randomized controlled trial.
Implications: ProFibro is the first mobile application in Brazilian Portuguese for fibromyalgia, which will be available for download and use for free. For the best and thorough use of the application, we recommend that patients share the experience with their healthcare professionals. On the other hand, healthcare professionals, including physiotherapists, may recommend the use of the application to their patients, as a complementary resource to promote self-care in fibromyalgia management.
Funding acknowledgements: The present work was supported by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).
Topic: Rheumatology
Ethics approval: The Research Ethics Committee of the School of Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo approved the protocol (n. 274/14).
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
