Ivan Cherrez-Ojeda

and 36 more

Background: Information/communication technologies such as mobile phone applications (apps) would enable chronic urticaria (CU) patients to self-evaluate their disease activity and control. Yet, recently Antó et al (2021) reported a global paucity of such apps for patients with CU. In this analysis, we assessed patient interest in using apps to monitor CU disease activity and control using questions from the CURICT study, Methods: The methodology for CURICT has been reported. Briefly, a 23-item questionnaire was completed by 1,841 CU patients from 17 UCAREs across 17 countries. Here, we analyzed patient responses to the CURICT questions on the use of apps for urticaria-related purposes. Results: As previously published, the majority of respondents had chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU; 63%; 18% chronic inducible urticaria [CIndu]; 19% with both), were female (70%) and in urban areas (75%). Over half of patients were very/extremely interested in an app to monitor disease activity (51%) and control (53%), while only ~1/10 were not. Patients with both urticaria types vs those with CSU only (OR, 1.36 [1.03-1.79]) and females vs males (OR[95%CI], 1.47 [1.17-1.85]) were more likely to be very to extremely interested in an app to assess disease control. Conclusions: Overall, patients with CU were highly interested in using an app to assess their disease activity and control. Development of well-designed apps, specific to disease types (CSU, CIndU, CSU+CIndU, etc), validated by experts across platforms would help improve the management and possibly outcomes of CU treatment while providing important patient information to be used in future research.