Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Feb 23, 2022
Date Accepted: Jul 29, 2022
Mobile Apps for the Management of Gastrointestinal Diseases: Systematic Search and Evaluation Within Online Stores
ABSTRACT
Background:
Gastrointestinal diseases are associated with substantial cost in health care. In times of the COVID-19 pandemic and further digitalization of gastrointestinal tract-healthcare mobile health apps could complement routine health care. Many gastrointestinal-healthcare-apps are already available in the app stores, but quality, data protection, and reliability remain often unclear.
Objective:
This systematic review aimed to evaluate the quality, characteristics as well as privacy, and security measures of mobile health apps for the management of gastrointestinal diseases.
Methods:
A web-crawler systematically searched for mobile health apps with a focus on gastrointestinal diseases. The identified mobile health apps were evaluated using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). Furthermore, app characteristics, data protection, and security measures were collected. Classic user star rating was correlated with overall mobile health app quality.
Results:
The overall quality of the mobile health apps (n=109) was moderate (mean 2.90, SD 0.52; on a scale ranging from 1 to 5). The quality of the subscales ranged from low (mean 1.89, SD 0.66) to good (mean 4.08, SD 0.57). Security of data transfer was ensured only by 11 (10.1%) mobile health apps. None of the mobile health apps had an evidence base. The user star rating did not correlate with the MARS overall score or with the individual sub-dimensions of the MARS (P>.05).
Conclusions:
Mobile health apps might have a positive impact on diagnosis, therapy, and patient guidance in gastroenterology in the future. We conclude that to date data security and proof of efficacy is not yet given in currently available mobile health apps. Clinical Trial: not applicated
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