Omaha System-Based Health Application on Improving Knowledge, Attitude, and Behaviors Regarding Infectious Disease Prevention in the Community

Summary

Background: Infectious diseases remain significant public health concerns due to several factors such as climate and environmental changes and natural disasters. Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) can be an appropriate way for fostering community participation, disseminating knowledge, and promoting behavior change toward infectious disease prevention. This study aims to describe a protocol for a pilot randomized controlled study to evaluate the impact of the Omaha System-Based mHealth app (BUHOS) on improving knowledge, attitude, and behaviors (KAB) regarding infectious disease prevention in an earthquake-affected region of Türkiye.

Methods: This study is a two-armed, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial design. A total of 112 eligible participants will be recruited from two separate container cities of an earthquake-affected region. These participants will be randomly allocated to either an intervention group or a control group. BUHOS will be designed based on the Omaha System, a widely recognized standardized taxonomy for the assessment, planning, and evaluation of healthcare services. BUHOS will be a two-week nursing intervention that includes monitoring KAB, employing Education, Guidance and Counseling (education videos), and Surveillance (reminder messages), and assessing the outcomes. Outcome variables will include the Problem Rating Scale for Outcomes, Community Communicable Diseases Knowledge Survey, Communicable Diseases Risk Awareness and Protection Scale and System Usability Scale. Outcome variables will be assessed on the 15th and 30th day after intervention.

Hypotheses:

H1: Among the Omaha System Problems, the Communicable/ Infectious Condition Problem Knowledge score will be higher on the 15th and 30th days compared to the control group.

H2: Infectious diseases risk awareness and prevention score will be higher on the 15th and 30th days compared to the control group.

H3: Communicable/ Infectious Condition Status Behaviour Parameter score will be higher on the 15th and 30th days compared to the control group H4: The knowledge and behaviour of the communicable/ infectious status and the awareness and prevention of the risk of infectious diseases of the experimental group will be higher than before the intervention on the 15th and 30th days.

Conditions

• Infectious Diseases
• Attitude
• Behavior
• Knowledge

Interventions

OTHER

BUHOS app

In this study, the BUHOS app initiative will be implemented among participants in the intervention group. BUHOS will be a two-weeks nursing intervention that includes monitoring KAB, employing Education, Guidance and Counseling (education videos), and Surveillance (reminder messages), and assessing the outcomes.

OTHER

Control Group

No intervention will be made to the patients in the control group, and the training videos prepared after the study is completed will be shared.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Atlas University

  collaborator OTHER

• Istanbul Medeniyet University

  collaborator OTHER

• Istanbul University - Cerrahpasa

  collaborator OTHER

• Hatay Devlet Hastanesi

  collaborator OTHER

• Health Institutes of Turkey

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Kocaeli University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Nesrin İlhan, Assoc. Prof. · Istanbul Medeniyet University

• Selda Seçginli · Atlas University

• Seda Doğru Bolat, Msc. · Hatay State Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

64 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-09-30

Primary Completion

2025-12-31

Completion

2026-06-30