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Pilot testing the mobile app of ‘Geen Paniek’: a usability and effectiveness trial

Gieseler, A.P.M. (2013) Pilot testing the mobile app of ‘Geen Paniek’: a usability and effectiveness trial.

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Abstract:Background A lot of people in the world suffer from panic disorder. Panic can have big influence on daily life routines and causes affected people and their families to change their habits, to avoid particular situations and even to quit their jobs. Besides the personal discomfort, the financial load for treatment and work absence means expenses of millions of Euros for the government. Although panic disorder cannot be forecasted, research shows that early intervention for help-seekers is effective. In the Netherlands is an effective CBT based course developed for group sessions with guidance of a professional to reduce panic complaints (‘Geen Paniek’). New technologies influence the development of healthcare in many ways. EHealth and mHealth in particular are widely used terms nowadays and have a lot of potential to influence healthcare. Intervention programs which are always available for the user like smartphone apps, could possibly be more cost- effective than existing face- to- face and online treatments. This paper is a pilot test about the prototype of the mobile adaptation of the course ‘Geen Paniek’. Methods used are think-aloud scenarios, a test period and interviews. Findings The usability test and the interviews yielded comments concerning system, content and service quality. These comments were interpreted into points of improvement. It was no indication of effect of the mobile application found. Discussion Examples for points of improvement in system quality are the structure of ‘Mijn geen paniek’ which should be reconsidered, the restructuring of the home screen to make the app more intuitive, an optical differentiation between ‘Mijn geen Paniek’ and ‘cursus’ and the reduction of depth of the exercise links. Promising results in the content and the service quality were found. No significant points of improvement could be identified. The respondents were mostly satisfied with the given information and the service the app offers. Because of the non-affected sample in this trial, an effect of the app could not be expected. The result of the PDSS-SR pre and posttest comparison supports this expectation. Recommendations for further development and research are given.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/63208
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