HealthNavigator: a mobile application for chronic disease screening and linkage to services at an urban Primary Health Network
Martin G. Seneviratne A C , Fred Hersch B and David P. Peiris AA The George Institute for Global Health, UNSW Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia.
B The George Institute for Global Health, University of Oxford, OX1 3QX, UK.
C Corresponding author. Email: martsen@stanford.edu
Australian Journal of Primary Health 24(2) 116-122 https://doi.org/10.1071/PY17070
Submitted: 16 May 2017 Accepted: 10 November 2017 Published: 26 March 2018
Abstract
Mobile applications (apps) are promising tools to support chronic disease screening and linkage to health services. They have the potential to increase healthcare access for vulnerable populations. The HealthNavigator app was developed to provide chronic disease risk assessments, linkage to local general practitioners (GPs) and lifestyle programs, and a personalised health report for discussion with a GP. Assessments were either self-administered or facilitated by community health workers through a Primary Health Network (PHN) initiative targeting ethnically diverse communities. In total, 1492 assessments (80.4% self-administered, 19.6% facilitated) were conducted over a 12-month period in Queensland, Australia. Of these, 26% of people screened came from postcodes representing the lowest quartile of socioeconomic disadvantage. When compared against self-administered assessments, subjects screened by the facilitated program were more likely to be born outside Australia (80.5 v. 33.2%, P < 0.001), and to fall within a high risk category based on cardiovascular risk scores (19.8 v. 13.7%, P < 0.01) and type 2 diabetes mellitus risk scores (58.0 v. 40.1%, P < 0.001). Mobile apps embedded into PHN programs may be a useful adjunct for the implementation of community screening programs. Further research is needed to determine their effect on health service access and health outcomes.
Additional keywords: community health, digital health, mHealth.
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