Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Mar 7, 2019
Date Accepted: May 29, 2019
Suicide Prevention Mobile Applications: Descriptive Analysis in the Most Popular Virtual Stores
ABSTRACT
Background:
Offering follow-up and care in their treatments to people with suicidal intentions, is a challenge for health professionals in conjunction with experts in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). That is why, in a joint will through the use of mobile applications as a technological resource, efforts are conducted to carry out these activities. This induces the need to explore within a research framework, whether the design and development of these applications are really consistent with the tasks to which they are oriented.
Objective:
To descriptively analyze a set of mobile applications aimed at suicide prevention and determine relevant factors in the design and development of these and their impact on the support of treatments for patients at risk of suicide at the Hospital de Zamora, Castilla y León, Spain.
Methods:
We considered a set of 20 applications previously listed in the article: "Mobile Apps for Suicide Prevention: Review of Virtual Stores and Literature" published in 2017 in JMIR mhealth and uhealth. As a method of checking this list, a search was carried out in the most popular Virtual Stores for apps (Android, iOS) using the keywords: «suicide prevention». The obtained results (apps) were subjected to a statistical evaluation through the application of a series of 16 parameters that establish various factors that may affect the selection of the user and the consequent support that this application can offer to a person at risk of suicide.
Results:
In the analysis of the 20 mobile applications sampled, the following aspects were found: (1) A high percentage of the apps analyzed in the study (82%), are provided in the English language; (2) The last update of the sampled applications was in 2017, but only for 45% of them, so the constant and progressive update of the treatments should be reflected in the updates of the applications; (3) It was observed that based on the distribution of scores and medians of the platforms (Android, iOS), on average as well as the general score of the applications, it was determined that those apps for the iOS platform seem to have better functionalities compared to the applications for Android platform.
Conclusions:
The design and development of mobile applications that support suicide prevention, should be strongly supported by health personnel as a component of “humanization” of these so that the effectiveness of the treatments supported by these applications can be improved.
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