Development of a Mobile Health Support Program for Nigerian Women with Breast Cancer
Background
Breast cancer (BC) is a major health issue worldwide, particularly in Nigeria, where it has high rates of occurrence and death. Chemotherapy, a common treatment, can cause physical and emotional challenges that affect patients’ quality of life. There is a need for mobile health (mHealth) solutions to provide support, but little research exists on their use among Nigerian women with BC.
Objective
The aim of this study was to create and test an mHealth program called the ChEmo Nurse Breast cancer Application (CENBA) to see if it could be easily used and accepted by patients.
Methods
This pilot study was conducted at two hospitals in Lagos. Thirty women who were newly diagnosed with BC and undergoing chemotherapy were randomly divided into two groups: one received the CENBA program, which included education about BC, coping skills training, a discussion forum, and consultations with nurses through a mobile app and phone calls over six weeks. The other group received standard care. We measured the program’s feasibility by looking at consent, dropout rates, and completion rates, and we explored acceptability through interviews.
Results
The completion rate of the study was 93.3%. Feedback from participants showed they found the program helpful, especially the educational materials and emotional support from the discussion forum and nurse consultations.
Conclusion
The CENBA program proved to be a practical and acceptable mHealth option for providing psychoeducational support to Nigerian women undergoing chemotherapy for BC. These results suggest that this program could be an effective tool to meet the needs of these patients and should be further explored in a larger trial.
Trial Registration
This study is a preliminary feasibility investigation for a larger trial, which is registered in the United States Clinical Trials registry (number NCT05489354).
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