Research Themes & Centres Update

To promote primary healthcare and improve health management of older adults in the community, the School has collaborated with a local telecommunications company to jointly develop a mHealth health management mobile app with interactive nursing support.

The mHealth app features a unique nurse notification function. When an abnormal vital sign (such as blood pressure, or blood glucose level) is detected in the app database, a registered nurse will be notified via the app and she/he will contact the older adult user to learn more about his/her health condition. Another highlight of the app is the 24-hour nurse interaction function. By tapping one button in the app, an older adult user can make a video call to a registered nurse for an evaluation of health and mental condition and care support.

The research team+ led by Dr Arkers Wong, (Principal Investigator; Assistant Professor) recruited participants from five elderly service centres of the Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service to study the effectiveness of the mHealth app. A total of 221 elderly aged 60 or above with at least one chronic condition(s) (including hypertension, pain or diabetes) participated in the research project.

The research findings showed that the app empowered the older adult users to monitor their chronic diseases and mental health conditions. A multi-interdisciplinary health-social partnership team providing support, such as timely medical referrals, resulted in reduction in unplanned use of health services and enhancing health management of the older adult users.

The study found that there was a significant increase in self-efficacy, a significant decrease in the level of depression, a reduction in the use of medical services, and an improvement in the quality of life++ in physical aspects, after the older adults used the app for three to six months.

Dr Arkers Wong said, “There was a significant reduction in the unplanned use of health services and unplanned visits to general practitioners by 76% and 72% respectively, after the older adults used the mHealth app with nursing support for three months.” These statistics have shown that the interactive nurse support mHealth mobile app can be one of the solutions for the increasing public medical expenditure due to an increasing number of chronic illnesses among older adults.

Click here (9:09 mins) to watch the interview about the mHealth app by the RTHK.

+Team members
PolyU’s School of Nursing: Co-Principal Investigator, Prof. Frances Wong, Chair Professor of Advanced Nursing Practice & Associate Dean (FHSS)]; Sylvia Ting, Clinical Instructor.
Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service: Wong Siu Man Officer-in-charge, Chow Kit Sum Assistant Service Director.

++Physical component summary of quality of life includes four domains, which are general health, physical functioning (e.g., climbing several floors, moderate activities), role activities (limited kinds of activities), and bodily pain.

 From left: Ms Sylvia Ting, Prof. Frances Wong, Dr Arkers Wong, and Ms Yu Yee Lin, Elderly Member of Elderly Centre Division of Hong Kong Lutheran Social Services, announced the research findings at a press conference held in March.