Motivating Adherence to Symptom Reporting Among Patients with Cancer: Pilot Study

  • Publications
  • Motivating Adherence to Symptom Reporting Among Patients with Cancer: Pilot Study
Year
2025
Type(s)
Author(s)
Donawa, Alyssa and Millan, Jeffrey and Millan, Luis and Reeves, Thomas and Lopez-Tucux, Ronaldo and Shafagati, Nazila and Arays, Ruta and Zinner, Ralph and Baker, Corey E
Source
IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Body Sensor Networks 2025
Url
https://doi.org/10.1109/BSN66969.2025.11337280
BibTeX
BibTeX
Incorporating mobile health (mHealth) into cancer care holds growing promise for improving quality and access, especially in rural and disadvantaged populations, who continue to face disparities in distress prevalence and healthcare engagement. Regardless, sustained engagement with mHealth solutions remains challenging due to motivational, technical, and usability barriers. We developed and piloted a HIPAA-compliant mHealth app, Assuage, in a 45-day longitudinal study with seven cancer patients, the majority from rural backgrounds. Participants alternated between daily and every-other-day symptom reporting. Our findings reflect adherence trends across reporting frequencies, stable and favorable system usability measures before and after the study, and qualitative insights about participants’ willingness to use mHealth for symptom self-reporting.