Department of Pharmacy, The First Hospital of Changsha, Changsha, China.
Front Public Health. 2022 Jul 29;10:812709. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.812709. eCollection 2022.
Chronic diseases are characterized by high incidence, long-term medication, and complex types of medication. There are also many corresponding medication therapy management (MTM) applications on the market, such as iCarea, and Medisafe. However, the existing research mainly focuses on how to choose high-quality MTM applications, and few researchers consider the expectations of MTM applications from potential users. The aims of this study were to investigate the demand, attitude, and expectations of the Chinese patients for the MTM applications to support.
From August 2019 to December 2019, we created a questionnaire to have knowledge of user needs, preferences, and expectations for MTM applications among 302 chronic patients in Hunan, Guangdong, and other provinces in China. Logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the risk factors of affecting patients' attitudes toward MTM applications. Then, respondents' expectations and preferences for MTM applications were statistically analyzed. The survey data were merged to provide information for the design of targeted chronic disease MTM applications.
A total of 260 (86.09%) out of 302 patients the respondents were willing to use the MTM applications of chronic disease. The independent influencing factors for using the MTM applications were long-term medication history (OR = 4.45, < 0.001), willing to learn about medicine knowledge (OR = 3.01, = 0.04), and wanting to get more professional medication knowledge Internet (OR = 2.86, = 0.005). It was worth noting that among those willing to use MTM applications, 55.00% of respondents were willing to use the WeChat applet for MTM, while only 23.46% of respondents preferred other applications. As to the more prevalent WeChat applet for MTM, the majority of participants expected the inclusion of useful modules, such as medication log (62.81%), medication reminder (62.81%), and medication recommendations (57.79%).
The participants are willing to use MTM applications of chronic disease, with a preference for the WeChat applet. Patients tended to use MTM applications if they had a long-term medication history or a desire for medical knowledge, especially if they want to get more professional medication knowledge the Internet. Participants are expected to include in the WeChat applet as medication logs, medication reminders, and medication recommendations which should be taken into serious account for the further development of MTM applications.
慢性病具有发病率高、长期用药、用药种类复杂等特点。市场上也有许多相应的药物治疗管理（MTM）应用，如 iCarea 和 Medisafe。然而，现有研究主要集中在如何选择高质量的 MTM 应用，而很少有研究考虑潜在用户对 MTM 应用的期望。本研究旨在调查中国慢性病患者对 MTM 应用的需求、态度和期望。
2019 年 8 月至 12 月，我们创建了一份问卷，以了解 302 名慢性病患者在中国湖南、广东等省份对 MTM 应用的用户需求、偏好和期望。采用逻辑回归分析方法分析影响患者对 MTM 应用态度的危险因素。然后，对 MTM 应用的期望和偏好进行了统计分析。合并调查数据，为有针对性的慢性病 MTM 应用设计提供信息。
共 260 名（86.09%）患者愿意使用慢性病 MTM 应用。使用 MTM 应用的独立影响因素为长期用药史（OR=4.45， < 0.001）、愿意学习医学知识（OR=3.01， = 0.04）、希望从互联网获得更多专业用药知识（OR=2.86， = 0.005）。值得注意的是，在愿意使用 MTM 应用的患者中，55.00%的患者愿意使用 MTM 的微信小程序，而只有 23.46%的患者倾向于使用其他应用程序。对于更流行的 MTM 微信小程序，大多数参与者希望包括有用的模块，如用药记录（62.81%）、用药提醒（62.81%）和用药建议（57.79%）。
参与者愿意使用慢性病 MTM 应用，偏好微信小程序。如果患者有长期用药史或对医学知识有需求，尤其是希望从互联网获得更多专业的用药知识，他们往往会使用 MTM 应用。参与者希望微信小程序中包括用药记录、用药提醒和用药建议，这应该在 MTM 应用的进一步发展中得到认真考虑。
