The effect of smart phone self-care application on quality of life in patients with liver cirrhosis

Comparison of the Effect of face to face training and self-care software under smart phones on the quality of life of patients with liver cirrhosis

In this research, 60 eligible patients with liver cirrhosis, referring to Imam Reza and Ghaem hospitals were chosen purposefully and a code was allocated to each one of them. Then, patients in a minimization method were divided into two control and software groups.

The study is done in two parts. The first part is the provision of the content of the software and its production. In the second part, 60 patients with liver cirrhosis referring to Ghaem Hospital and Imam Reza Hospital and specialized liver clinics in Mashhad were selected according to entry criteria and divided into two groups. the patients in the software group will have a 45-minute individual training session on how to install the software and work with it, and for the control group, there are two 45-minute face-to-face sessions. Both groups are followed up for a month. Quality of life questionnaire before the intervention, two weeks and four weeks after the intervention, will be completed in two groups and at the end of the data analysis will be done.

Participants must have ages 20-65 years, access to Android smartphone, and have the skills to use it, AND not participate in the previous self-care program, and not be candidates for the Transplant. If the patient has such cases as death, candidation for transplantation or exacerbation of the disease, will be excluded FROM the study .

Intervention on liver cirrhosis patients admitted to the hospital or referring to the office which has entry criteria, will begin with available sampling method and random allocation will be made to the software and comparison groups. the patients in the software group will have a individual training session on how to install the software and work with it, and will give them a booklet on how to use the software. The comparison group will receive the equivalent educational content in two session in face-to-face manner, and during the training, a question and answer will be made between the researcher and the patient, as needed. further information will be provided as a pamphlet to the patient. Patients are followed up by researcher, as a weekly phone call for a period of one month.

Quality of Life

In this research,the minimization method is used. In which patients were examined for three characteristics of age, gender and economic status, one person in the control group and one in the software group from both the same person.

This study is one-way blind. In this study, patients without knowing what they are supposed to be and in what group are randomly divided into two groups and that they are not known to be in the control group or intervention.