JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

While the increasing availability of mobile health applications (Apps) may enable people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) to better self-manage their health, there is a general lack of evidence on ways to ensure appropriate development and evaluation of Apps.

Objective:

To obtain an overview on existing mHealth Apps for self-management in patients with RMDs, focusing on content and development methods.

Methods:

A search was performed up to December 2017 across five databases. For each publication relevant to an App for RMDs, information on the disease, purpose, content and development strategies was extracted and qualitatively assessed.

Results:

Of 562 abstracts, 32 were included in the analysis. Of these, 11 (34.4%) referred to an App linked to a connected device. Most of the Apps targeted rheumatoid arthritis (n=11). The top three aspects addressed by the Apps were: pain (62.5%), fatigue (40.6%) and physical activity (34.4%). The development process of the Apps was described in 84.4% of the articles. Patient involvement in the App design phase was only included in 15.7% of studies. Health professionals and/or physicians were involved in the development or evaluation phase in 40.6%. Despite most of articles having been published within the past two years, only five Apps were still commercially available at the time of our search.

Conclusions:

The development process of most Apps was of low or moderate quality in many studies. Because of the increasing RMD patient willingness to use mHealth Apps for self-management, optimal standards and quality assurance of new Apps are mandatory.