Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Mar 3, 2021
Date Accepted: Jul 21, 2021
The Identification and Evaluation of Methodologies to Assess the Quality of mHealth apps in High, Low & Middle-Income Countries: a Rapid Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
There has been a rapid growth in the availability and use of mobile health (mHealth) apps around the world in recent years. However, consensus regarding an accepted standard to assess the quality of such apps does not exist. Differing interpretations of quality add to this problem. Consequently, it has become increasingly difficult for healthcare professionals to distinguish apps of high quality from those of lower quality. This exposes both patients and healthcare professionals to unnecessary risk. Despite progress, limited understanding of contributions by those in low- and middle- income countries (LMIC) on this topic exists. As such, the applicability of quality assessment methodologies in LMIC settings remains unexplored.
Objective:
The objectives of this rapid review are to; 1) Identify current methodologies within the literature to assess the quality of mHealth apps. 2) Understand what aspects of quality these methodologies address. 3) Determine what input has been made by authors from LMICs. 4) Examine the applicability of such methodologies in low- and middle- income settings.
Methods:
The review is registered with Prospero (CRD42020205149). A search of PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Scopus was performed for papers relating to mHealth app quality assessment methodologies, published in English between 2005 and the 28th of December, 2020. A thematic and descriptive analysis of methodologies and papers was performed.
Results:
Electronic database searches identified 841 papers. After the screening process, 53 papers remained for inclusion; 6 proposed novel methodologies which could be used to evaluate mHealth apps of diverse medical areas of interest; 8 proposed methodologies which could be used to assess apps concerned with a specific medical focus; 39 used methodologies developed by other published authors to evaluate the quality of various groups of mHealth apps. Authors of 3 papers were solely affiliated to institutes in LMICs. A further 8 papers had at least one co-author affiliated to an institute in a LMIC.
Conclusions:
Quality assessment of mHealth apps is complex in nature and at times, subjective. Despite growing research on this topic, to date an all-encompassing, appropriate means for evaluating the quality of mHealth apps does not exist. There has been engagement with authors affiliated to institutes in LMICs, however limited consideration of current generic methodologies for application in a LMIC settings have been identified.
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