Design and Evaluation of Mobile-Based Self-Care Application to Prevent Lumbar Disc Hernia for Nurses

Background: One of the most common musculoskeletal disorders in the spine is considered to be lumbar disc hernia. It is believed that nurses commonly encounter this disorder owing to the severe working environment. The present survey aims to design and evaluate mobile-based self-care application  to prevent lumbar disc hernia in nurses. Methods: The method of this research, consists of three parts: needs assessment, designing and evaluation. 20 nurses participated in pre- and post-test evaluations. The "Information Needs Assessment" questionnaire was completed by 10 experts and was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (Alpha=0.930), "Self-assessmenttest" with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (Alpah=0.820) and "Knowledge Assessment" test with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (Alpah=0.944). An application with Kathleen’s programming language was created under the Android operating system and was evaluated by 5 experts based on the "Nelson Usability" questionnaire. Data analysis was performed with SPSS software version 22. Results: This designed application capabilities are as follows: 1. Providing educational content in four areas of lumbar disc hernia, ergonomics, stress management and exercise, 2. Recording information in health record and announce warnings about clinical features, 3. Recording  Body Mass Index (BMI) and announce the necessary warning to observe weight balance, 4.Giving the chance to nurses to test themselves both, before and after using the self-care-application. The t-test value of 0.613, in connenction with a highly significant (p<0.001) indicates that the observed improvement in nurses’ knowledge after using the application is statistically significant (the mean pre-test score was 11.05, while the post-test score increased to 15.55). This demonstrates that the intervention had a measurable effect beyond what might be expected by chance. Conclusion: This study reveals the fact that the use of the above-mentioned self-care application leads to the improvement of knowledge. Therefore, it is highly recommended that a mobile-based self-care application  including knowledge, insight, and educational contents of lumbar disc hernia, ergonomics, stress management and exercise can help nurses acquire self-care skills in the prevention of lumbar disc hernia. This app has the potential to reduce workplace injuries to lower healthcare costs and improve nurse retention by fostering self-care practices.