The Impact of Patient Education with a Smartphone Application on the Quality of Bowel Preparation for Screening Colonoscopy.
- Author:
JeongHyeon CHO
1
;
SeungHee LEE
;
Jung A SHIN
;
Jeong Ho KIM
;
Hong Sub LEE
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: Colonoscopy; Enema; Mobile applications; Colonic neoplasms
- MeSH: Colonic Neoplasms; Colonoscopy*; Enema; Humans; Mass Screening*; Mobile Applications; Patient Education as Topic*; Polyps; Smartphone*; Young Adult
- From:Clinical Endoscopy 2017;50(5):479-485
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: BACKGROUND/AIMS: Few studies have evaluated the use of a smartphone application (app) for educating people undergoing colonoscopy and optimizing bowel preparation. Therefore, this study was designed to develop a smartphone app for people to use as a preparation guide and to evaluate the efficacy of this app when used prior to colonoscopy. METHODS: In total, 142 patients (male:female=84:58, mean age=43.5±9.3 years), who were scheduled to undergo a colonoscopy at Myongji Hospital, were enrolled in this study. Seventy-one patients were asked to use a smartphone app that we had recently developed to prepare for the colonoscopy, while the 71 patients of the sex and age-matched control group were educated via written and verbal instructions. RESULTS: The quality of bowel cleansing, evaluated using the Boston Bowel Preparation Scale, was significantly higher in the smartphone app group than in the control group (7.70±1.1 vs. 7.24±0.8, respectively, p=0.007 by t-test). No significant differences were found between the two groups regarding work-up time and the number of patients with polyps. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, targeting young adults (≤50 years), the bowel preparation achieved by patients using the smartphone app showed significantly better quality than that of the control group.
