Mobile application for self-care in people with heart failure: a quasi-experimental study.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the self-care scores of people with heart failure before and after using the "Tum-Tum" mobile application.

METHOD: A single-group, quasi-experimental, before-and-after study involving a sample of 57 individuals treated at the cardiology outpatient clinic of a public university hospital in the city of João Pessoa, Paraíba, conducted between January and May 2024. To measure self-care, the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index was used before (T0) and 60 days after (T1) using the mobile application. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

RESULTS

54.4% of participants were male. The median age was 60 years, and the median number of years of education was six years. A statistically significant difference was observed between the pre-intervention (T0) and post-intervention (T1) time points regarding the heart failure self-care maintenance and self-care confidence subscales.

CONCLUSION

The use of the "Tum-Tum" mobile app had a positive influence on increasing scores. The app has the potential to support educational strategies promoted by healthcare professionals-particularly nurses-regarding self-care for people with heart failure. The study was registered with ReBEC - registry RBR-5zx8rvc.