Development and Effects of Mobile App-based Prevention Program of Knee Osteoarthritis for Obese Middle-aged Women Based on IMB Model

This study aimed to develop and apply an mobile app-based knee osteoarthritis prevention program based on the IMB (InformationMotivation-Behavioral Skills) model to prevent knee osteoarthritis in obese middle-aged women. This is a quasi-experimental study of unequal control group repeated measures design to verify the effect on knee osteoarthritis prevention knowledge, health attitude, social support, self-efficacy, knee osteoarthritis prevention behavior, body mass index, lower extremity muscle strength, and health-related quality of life in obese middle-aged women. The subjects of this study were a total of 67 obese middle-aged women aged 45 to 60 (experimental group: 32, control group: 35). Data were analyzed using a SPSS 22.0 program with frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, χ2 -test, Fisher's Exact test, Independent t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, Two-way Repeated measure ANOVA, Friedman test, and Wilcoxon signed-rank test. As a result of the study, obese middle-aged women in the experimental group had higher knee arthritis prevention knowledge (p <.001), health attitude (p =.008), and social support (p =.007) compared to the control group), self-efficacy (p <.001), knee osteoarthritis prevention behavior (p =.002), body mass index (p <.001) and lower extremity muscle strength (p =.001) were significantly improved. Through this, this study proved that the app-based knee osteoarthritis prevention program developed based on the IMB model is an effective and appropriate program for preventing knee osteoarthritis in obese middle-aged women who develop degeneratively with aging. In particular, its utilization and practical value of this app-based program is high in everyday life.