Creating a Tailored Info App to Promote Self-Management Skills in Persons with Chronic Health Conditions: Development Strategies and User Experience

Persons with chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and others, often experience self-management problems that are not disease specific. These include disrupted sleep, pain, memory issues, and challenges in working with healthcare providers. These patients may benefit from information and skill development for these problems, but simply providing them information in brief sessions during clinical appointments or in handouts or pamphlets may not have a substantial impact on their behavior. Providing information tailored to persons’ needs and individual characteristics has a greater impact on patients’ behavior and may increase these persons’ abilities to manage their health. Creating tailored information for each person, however, is labor intensive, making it difficult to use in everyday clinical practice. Computer-based tailoring is an alternative, allowing automated tailoring of information presented to patients based on their interactions with a computer app. The purpose of this article is to describe our process in developing a series of modules for chronic disease self-management for persons 40 years of age or older with one or more chronic health conditions.