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Informing App Design to Reduce Self-Management Challenges Identified for Chronic Disease

Self-managing chronic diseases is challenging for patients and involves handling a range of long-term treatments. Patients have many responsibilities tomanage. Feeling overwhelmed by this information can lead to a sense of hopelessness and depression. Mobile apps can be beneficial support for chronically ill patients to selfmanage their condition. Many apps are available for various purposes, such as fitness and daily wellbeing, but none are customised for chronically ill patients who need to manage their disease daily. The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to identify the critical challenges faced by patients when self-managing their chronic illness. These challenges will inform the design of a customised mobile app that is user friendly and will assist patients in managing their disease efficiently and effectively. A qualitative interpretive approach analysed through the theoretical lens of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) is the proposed methodology for this project. Interpretivism is about understanding people in their natural world. The social world of people with chronic illnesses is lonely and isolating. The TPB connects a persons’ attitudes and behaviour. Understanding chronically ill patients’ feelings of isolation and helplessness through data gathered by semi-structured open-ended interviews will enable a thematic analysis of the critical challenges chronically ill patients face. This paper provides a unique approach for identifying and analysing critical issues that the chronically ill face from a patient viewpoint. These issues will be used to customise the design of an app for self-management purposes.