Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Mar 27, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Mar 28, 2018 - May 6, 2018
Date Accepted: May 6, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Supply and Demand in mHealth Apps for Persons With Multiple Sclerosis: Systematic Search in App Stores and Scoping Literature Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a non-curable chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that affects more than 2 million people worldwide. MS-related symptoms impact negatively on the quality of life of persons with MS, who need to be active in the management of their health. mHealth apps could support these patient groups by offering useful tools, providing reliable information, and monitoring symptoms. A previous study from this group identified needs, barriers, and facilitators for the use of mHealth solutions among persons with MS. It is unknown how commercially available health apps meet these needs.
Objective:
The main objective of this review was to assess how the features present in MS apps meet the reported needs of persons with MS.
Methods:
We followed a combination of scoping review methodology and systematic assessment of features and content of mHealth apps. A search strategy was defined for the two most popular app stores (Google Play and Apple App Store) to identify relevant apps. Reviewers independently conducted a screening process to filter apps according to the selection criteria. Interrater reliability was assessed through the Fleiss-Cohen coefficient (k=.885). Data from the included MS apps were extracted and explored according to classification criteria.
Results:
An initial total of 581 potentially relevant apps was found. After removing duplicates and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 30 unique apps were included in the study. A similar number of apps was found in both stores. The majority of the apps dealt with disease management and disease and treatment information. Most apps were developed by small and medium-sized enterprises, followed by pharmaceutical companies. Patient education and personal data management were among the most frequently included features in these apps. Energy management and remote monitoring were often not present in MS apps. Very few contained gamification elements.
Conclusions:
Currently available MS apps fail to meet the needs and demands of persons with MS. There is a need for health professionals, researchers, and industry partners to collaborate in the design of mHealth solutions for persons with MS to increase adoption and engagement.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.