A mobile diary app to support rehabilitation at home for elderly with COPD: a preliminary feasibility study

The paper describes the design, development and preliminary evaluation of a mobile diary app for elderly with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The application, called My Daily Activity (MyDA), allows patients to follow personalized rehabilitation, based on physical training, cognitive stimulation and an educational program. MyDA is based on four different modules: configuration, exercise, assessment and education. The first version of the application has been developed for tablet based on Android OS. As a preliminary feasibility evaluation, 12 elderly with COPD have used the system at home for 3 months. Both objective and qualitative data have been analyzed. Preliminary results suggest that, despite some improvements should be applied, MyDA represents a feasible and valuable solution for motivating elderly with COPD to continue rehabilitation at home. Future works should focus on making the app more usable, more interactive and more attractive especially for the technology rejecting users.