Development of a culturally specific heart failure self-care iPad teaching tool for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

Background / Aims: Self-care programs assisted by information technology can be highly effective in lowering re-hospitalisation and improving heart failure (HF) knowledge and self-management skills. To date, limited self-care resources have been developed specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. The aims of this project were to 1) develop HF self-care educational materials that would be engaging, interactive, simple to navigate, useable by patients, carers and healthcare workers within the hospital and community settings; 2) to evaluate their effectiveness on HF knowledge, self-care behaviours and user friendliness.Methods: This study used a mixed method design including participatory action research for the development of a self-care app using a pre-post test design and validated questionnaires to evaluate effectiveness.Results: There were a total of 19 participants involved in the development and design of the app, including cardiologists, software designers, heart failure specialists, indigenous elders, healthcare workers and five patients and their families. Feedback from these stakeholders included aspects of fonts, colours, images, language and health literacy. Patients involved in the pre-post test were 60% male; mean age 61.2 years; 60% NYHA Class III; 80% married. Overall, HF knowledge improved by 13%; self-care behaviours by 3.2% and satisfaction 86.2%.Conclusion: Patients enjoyed participating in designing the app and showed improvement in knowledge, self-care and satisfaction. Outcomes from this pilot have been encouraging enough for our team to proceed to a larger powered trial.