Are you HIRT? (Hemophilia Injury Recognition Tool): Perceptions from young men with mild hemophilia in Canada on the use of the mobile app for injury self-management

Introduction/ Objective: Young men with mild hemophilia have a unique challenge with accessing relevant information to assist injury self-management. They do not bleed frequently. This limited experience may mean that they do not always identify musculoskeletal injuries requiring medical attention, potentially leading to significant health consequences. In response to this challenge, a team of clinicians, researchers and young men with mild hemophilia developed a self-assessment pathway which was converted into a mobile app to address the need for easier access to assessment resources. This study investigated the perceptions of young men with mild hemophilia in Canada on the use of the mobile app HIRT? (Hemophilia Injury Recognition Tool) for injury self-management. Methods: Key informant interviews were conducted with 12 young men with mild hemophilia, 18-35 years old. A mixed methods design was used. The qualitative method of interpretive description was used through in-depth recorded and transcribed interviews about access and usefulness of the mobile app. Qualitative data were analysed using inductive content analysis to identify themes and patterns. The quantitative data, gathered by a short self-report questionnaire, evaluated perceived injury self-management strategies and app utility. Perceived confidence levels for using and not using the app were also collected. Non-parametric McNemar chi-square test and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used to determine the association between self-management strategies and the confidence levels using the app versus not using the app, with a significance level set at p < .05. Results: From the qualitative analysis, themes included accessibility, credibility, the benefit of embedded alarms and overall usefulness. Quantitative analyses illustrated that perceived confidence levels significantly increased (p =0.004) with the use of the app compared to not using the app. However, perceived self-management strategies did not significantly differ when participants thought about not using the app and using the app. Conclusions: Technology is rapidly advancing and education needs to be accessible. This study gives evidence that there is a preference for a mobile app intervention and that perceived confidence in injury self-management significantly improved for young men with mild hemophilia in Canada with the use of HIRT?