Study On The Long-term Management Of Children With Epilepsy Based On WeChat Platform

Objective: To explore the pattern of long-term management of children with epilepsy based on We Chat platform and its clinical application by building a We Chat platform-based management.Methods: The main study subjects were the parents of children with epilepsy who visited the Department of Pediatrics of Fujian Medical University Union Hospital from July 2015 to January 2016 and gave informed consent to participate in the study. The questionnaire on affecting factors of users' acceptance and usage of the platform was designed based on the Technology Acceptance Model(TAM),Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology(UTAUT), Perceived Risk Theory. The questionnaire of basic conditions was designed by ourselves. Both of the questionnaires were used to collect data. Seizure control of children was monitored.Results: A total of 145 parents had participated in the study.145 users had filled in general information and the diagnosis of epilepsy.94 users had filled in the disease related information.22 users had filled in the medical history and seizure dairies.32 users' questions was up to 63 items. The articles of the platform got 1369 page views. A follow-up was made on 60 patients who participated in the study from July 2015 to August 2015.Patient samples were composed of 38 males and 22 females ranging from 1.25 to 18 years old, at a median age of 10 years old.50% of them came from local area while the others came from other places. Their courses of epilepsy were from 6 months to 15 years. 88.3% of them took medicine for more than 1 year.81.7% of them were under treatment. All of them visited hospital regularly.78.3% of them took medicine on time.93.3% of them followed the medicine dose which their doctors advised them to take.60% of them were seizure free during the last 6 months. Their parents who used the platform included 18 males and 42 females, whose age ranged from 25 to 45 years old, at a median age of 36 years old.48% of them got a high school degree or above.86.7% of them were not busy with their work. Before they participated in the study, the approaches they used to obtained knowledge about epilepsy included consulting doctors(68.3%),searching online(26.7%) and consulting relatives and friends(5.0%). And 35.0% of them had some knowledge about epilepsy.85% of them had a desire for getting more knowledge about epilepsy.85.0% of them thought the main problems for seeing a doctor in the hospital was registration difficulty.80% of them had high acceptance degree of the management of children with epilepsy based on We Chat platform. The factors which affected the acceptance and use of the platform among basic conditions included whether the users were busy, the comprehensive degree of knowledge about epilepsy before they took part in the study and the degree of taking medicine on time(P=0.030, 0.010, 0.018).The percentage of the application experience, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of We Chat was 84.5%,80.3%, 80.0% respectively. The percentage of perceived misleading and privacy risk was 14.5%, 5.75% respectively. The percentage of community influence was0%. The application experience, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of We Chat had positive influence on the acceptance degree(P=0.037, 0.017,0.000).Perceived risk had negative influence on the acceptance degree(P=0.015).Community influence had no influence on the acceptance degree(P=0.902).Follow-up of 60 children with epilepsy who had been in the platform for 6 months showed that complete control of seizure in 36 children, the reduction of seizure frequency in 17 children was more than 75%, the reduction of seizure frequency in 5 children was above 50%.Among them, total effective rate was 96.7%.Conclusions: Long-term management of children with epilepsy based on We Chat platform is effective, feasible and safe, which makes it well accepted among parents of children with epilepsy. It is helpful to children and their parents by providing them scientific understanding about epilepsy, improving their treatment compliance and effectiveness and decreasing its associated psychological pressure. It can serve as a medical resource, improving diagnosis and treatment levels of primary care physicians by multi-subject cooperation and the establishment of huge database of epilepsy research in pediatrics. It is a new way of the long-term management of children with epilepsy.