Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jun 9, 2021
Date Accepted: Feb 16, 2022
German Mobile Apps for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Management: Review and Analysis using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS)
ABSTRACT
Background:
Patients suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) frequently need long-term medical treatment. Mobile apps promise to complement and improve IBD management, however, so far there is no scientific analysis of their quality.
Objective:
To evaluate the quality of German IBD mobile apps targeting inflammatory bowel disease patients and physicians treating IBD patients using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS).
Methods:
The German Apple App Store and Google Play store were systematically searched to identify German IBD mobile apps for patients and physician use. MARS was used to independently assess app quality by 6 physicians, 3 using Android and 3 using iOS smartphones. Apps were randomly assigned so that the 4 apps with the most downloads were rated by all raters and the remaining apps were rated by 1 Android and 1 iOS user.
Results:
In total, we identified 1764 apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. After removing apps that were not related to IBD (1386) and not available in German (317), 61 apps remained. After removing duplicates (3), congress (7), journal (4), and clinical study apps (6), as well as excluding apps that were available in only one of the two app stores (20) and apps which can only be used with an additional device (7) , 14 apps fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The app “CED Dokumentation und Tipps” had the highest overall MARS score with 4.11/5. Median MARS scores of the 14 apps were ranging from 2.38 and 4.11. All of the analyzed apps addressed patients. Three apps are classified as medical products. There was no significant difference between iOS and Android raters.
Conclusions:
The quality of German IBD apps is largely heterogeneous. Furthermore, despite promising international study results, little evidence exists proving a clinical benefit for German IBD apps. MARS seems to be a suitable method to identify relevant apps. Accordingly, clinical studies and also patient inclusion in the app development process are needed to effectively implement mobile apps in routine care.
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