Effectiveness of a Stoma Self-Care Mobile App in Enhancing Patients’ Ostomy Self-Care Ability

Patients with colorectal cancer or severe abdominal trauma often require a stoma and must master the self-care necessary to prevent peristomal skin complications. In this study, we developed and evaluated a mobile health (mHealth) app, called The Stoma Self-Care App, to facilitate self-care knowledge and skill acquisition alongside clinical monitoring in patients with ostomy. The app was developed following the 6 stages of the System Development Life Cycle: planning, design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance. To evaluate usability, the app was tested in 23 patients over 4 weeks, who then completed a self-administered satisfaction questionnaire. The final version of the mHealth app received favorable clinical appraisals, with the average satisfaction score being 4.85/5.0. The findings demonstrated good usability and high user satisfaction among a small sample of patients with ostomy, indicating that the app was well accepted and easy to use. Overall, this study describes a systematic, user-centered approach to developing a mHealth app for ostomy self-care and provides preliminary evidence supporting its usability and acceptability. The app’s systematic development and high user acceptance support the feasibility of a user-centered development approach for mHealth applications in ostomy care. Further studies involving larger and more diverse patient populations are warranted to evaluate the app’s effectiveness and broader applicability.