Personalization of eHealth systems is a promising technique for improving patients’ adherence. This paper explores the possibility of personalisation based on the patients’ medical health situation and on their health literacy. The study is set within the context of a self-management support system (SMSS) for renal transplant patients. A SMSS is designed with layering, nudging, emphaticizing, and focusing principles. It has two communication styles: (1) a guided style that provided more interpretation support and addressed emotional needs; and (2) a factual style that showed only measurement history, medical information, and recommendations. To evaluate the design, 49 renal transplant patients with three different experience levels participated in a lab study, in which they used the system in imaginary scenarios to deal with three medical health situations (alright, mild concern, and concern). A 96% understanding and 87% adherence rate was observed, with a significant interaction effect on adherence between patient group and health situation. Furthermore, compared to recently transplanted patients, not recently transplanted patients were relatively more positive towards the factual than the guided communication style in the “alright” condition. Furthermore, additional medical information was searched more often in health situations that causes mild concern and a majority of patients did not change the communication style to their preferred styles. By attuning the communication style to patient’s experience and medical health situation according to the applied principles and acquired insights, SMSSs are expected to be better used.

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Background
Self-management support systems (SMSS) have been proposed for renal transplant patients to increase their autonomy and reduce the number of hospital visits. For the design and implementation of such systems, it is important to understand factors influencing patients’ acceptance of a SMSS. This paper aims to identify these key factors.
Methods
From literature, possible factors and related questionnaire items were identified. Afterwards, focus groups with experts and patients were conducted to adapt the items to the application domain. To investigate acceptance of a SMSS and the influencing factors, fifty renal transplant patients answered the questionnaire before and after using the SMSS for 4 months.
Results
All the questionnaire constructs had a satisfactory or higher level of reliability. After using the SMSS for 4 months, trust and performance expectancy could explain part of the variation in behavioural intention of using the SMSS, but not beyond the explanation given by patients’ affect towards the system, which accounted for 26% of the variance.
Conclusions
We anticipate that in future caregivers implementing a SMSS will benefit from taking steps to improve patients’ affect as this was found to correlate with patients use intention.
Trial registration
The study was registered in ToetsingOnline, a registry held by the Dutch Central Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects. The registration number is NL33387.058.11, and the date of registration is 31st July 2012.
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Background: The high frequency of outpatient visits after kidney transplantation is burdensome to both the recovering patient and health care capacity. Self-monitoring kidney function offers a promising strategy to reduce the number of these outpatient visits. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate whether it is safe to rely on patients’ self-measurements of creatinine and blood pressure, using data from a self-management randomized controlled trial. Methods: For self-monitoring creatinine, each participant received a StatSensor Xpress-i Creatinine Meter and related test material. For self-monitoring blood pressure, each participant received a Microlife WatchBP Home, an oscillometric device for blood pressure self-measurement on the upper arm. Both devices had a memory function and the option to download stored values to a computer. During the first year post transplantation, 54 patients registered their self-measured creatinine values in a Web-based Self-Management Support System (SMSS) which provided automatic feedback on the registered values (eg, seek contact with hospital). Values registered in the SMSS were compared with those logged automatically in the creatinine device to study reliability of registered data. Adherence to measurement frequency was determined by comparing the number of requested with the number of performed measurements. To study adherence to provided feedback, SMSS-logged feedback and information from the electronic hospital files were analyzed. Results: Level of adherence was highest during months 2-4 post transplantation with over 90% (42/47) of patients performing at least 75% of the requested measurements. Overall, 87.00% (3448/3963) of all registered creatinine values were entered correctly, although values were often registered several days later. If (the number of) measured and registered values deviated, the mean of registered creatinine values was significantly lower than what was measured, suggesting active selection of lower creatinine values. Adherence to SMSS feedback ranged from 53% (14/24) to 85% (33/39), depending on the specific feedback. Conclusions: Patients’ tendency to postpone registration and to select lower creatinine values for registration and the suboptimal adherence to the feedback provided by the SMSS might challenge safety. This should be well considered when designing self-monitoring care systems, for example by ensuring that self-measured data are transferred automatically to an SMSS.

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Computer-based support for disease self-management has been proposed for chronic patients to stimulate early awareness of disease changes, facilitate patients’ autonomy, and reduce demands on health care resources. Renal transplant patients need lifelong care and can be viewed as chronically ill: they visit hospital regularly to monitor their blood level creatinine and blood pressure. They should also benefit from self-management as other chronic patients do. For the renal transplant patients, a self-management support system (SMSS) was designed and tested, with which they could conduct selfmeasuring regularly to check the renal function and get corresponding feedback. In the study, there were three feedback categories: (1) alright, and therefore patients did not have to take an extra action; (2) mild concern, and therefore patients were requested to measure again; and (3) concern, and therefore patients were advised to contact the hospital. To conduct self-management safely, it is important for the patients to follow the protocol and the system feedback. Therefore, to understand these patients’ selfmanagement behaviour, preferences, and adherence, this thesis investigates possible influencing factors for them to adhere to and accept the SMSS. The study entailed two related research lines: a lab study line that focused on the user interface design of a SMSS, and a clinical trial line that focused on patients’ acceptance and adherence of a SMSS… @en