A smartphone-app intervention to build health literacy skills in people living with kidney failure requiring haemodialysis-a feasibility study

Aim: Determine the feasibility and acceptability of an app-based intervention to build health literacy skills Background: Although, education programs for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are standard practice, no models of care exist to improve global health literacy skills, nor specifically target culturally and linguistically diverse groups Methods: Adults over 18 undertaking haemodialysis were invited to use the SUCCESS App for 12 weeks Measurements included the Health Literacy Questionnaire and the mHealth app usability questionnaire (MAUQ;7-point scale-1: strongly disagree, 7: strongly agree) Results: Our recruitment strategy was successful in reaching diverse patients (N = 98), nearly half of the participants were born outside of Australia (48%) and had limited health literacy (47%) Despite interruption due to Covid-19, 58 2% of participants completed the study There was statistically significant improvement in the ability to actively engage with healthcare providers postintervention (pre: 20 5 ± 3 5, post: 21 1 ± 3 7, P = 0 006) Thirty-nine participants completed the MAUQ and most participants agreed that the app;was useful for their health and wellbeing 6 (IQR: 3), felt comfortable using it 6 (IQR: 2), would use it again 6 (IQR: 2 5) and were satisfied with it 6 (IQR: 2) Participants neither agreed or disagreed that the app could improve their access to healthcare services 4 (IQR: 3), somewhat agreed that it could help manage their health 5 (IQR: 3) and strongly agreed that they would recommend it to a friend 7 (IQR: 1 5) Conclusions: This study showed that it was feasible to use an app as a model of care to build health literacy for patients with CKD The SUCCESS app was acceptable and may help build some health literacy skills