Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Dec 29, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Dec 29, 2018 - Jan 26, 2019
Date Accepted: Apr 8, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Apps to support self-management for people with hypertension: a content analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) is one component of effective supported self-management which may potentially be mediated by mobile apps.
Objective:
We aimed to identify the self-management features (HBPM and broader support strategies) offered by currently available apps and to determine the features associated with download frequency and user ratings.
Methods:
We searched Google play, Apple app store, NHS Apps Library and ‘myhealthapps.net’ (first search 1 February 2018; updated 18 August 2018). We included high blood pressure (HBP) apps available in the UK and extracted their features, numbers of downloads and the average users’ rating from the app stores. We mapped the features to the holistic PRISMS taxonomy of self-management support. We employed regression analysis to determine if any features were associated with download frequency or user rating.
Results:
We included 151 apps. The three commonest features were: monitoring BP and charting logs; lifestyle (exercise /dietary) advice; and providing information about hypertension. The other 11 components of the PRISMS taxonomy were rarely featured. There was little evidence to support associations between specific features and the download statistics and rating scores, with only two uncommon features achieving borderline significant associations. The presence of social support features, such as a forum, was weakly but significantly (R2=.04, P=.02), correlated with the numbers of downloads. Apps designed specifically for particular blood pressure monitors/smart watches were weakly associated with a higher rating score (R2=.05, P<0.001). Apps with more ratings were associated with more downloads (R2=.91, P<0.001).
Conclusions:
The functionality of currently available apps is limited to logging BP, offering lifestyle advice and providing information about hypertension. Future app development should consider broadening the remit to produce a system that can respond flexibly to the diversity of support that enables people to self-manage their hypertension.
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.