Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: May 20, 2022
Date Accepted: Jul 27, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
mHealth applications for low back pain self-management: A systematic scoping review
ABSTRACT
Background:
The role of self-management in health promotion and its preventive and/or rehabilitative role is increasing through the use of mobile health applications (mHealth apps). Such mHealth apps are also increasingly used for self-management in low back pain (LBP), but their effectiveness has not been sufficiently explored.
Objective:
Aim of this systematic scoping review was to provide a literature overview of mHealth apps including a self-management component and their effects on pain and disability in people with LBP.
Methods:
We applied the Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) methodology, including a priori research questions. A literature search was conducted in two databases (PubMed and PEDro) for studies published until 17th June 2021. Studies were included if the mHealth app included an in-built self-management content, the app was used for self-management for people with low back pain, and the study reported outcomes on pain and disability in people with LBP.
Results:
Seven studies were selected for the review with overall 2,314 persons with low back pain, of which 57% were females. The majority of participants had chronic LBP, however, some studies did not report the duration of LBP at baseline. A total of 5 different mHealth apps were identified which all contributed to a statistically significant reduction of low back pain and clinically meaningful changes. Four studies used 4 different assessments for disability, of which three out of four showed statistically significant improvements in the level of functional ability.
Conclusions:
This systematic scoping review found preliminary evidence that people suffering from LBP may benefit from mHealth apps providing self-management content. However, the generalizability of the findings is diminished due to heterogeneity in the pain characterization of included participants and intervention durations. More high-quality studies with longer follow-up periods to investigate personalized mHealth approaches are recommended for LBP self-management.
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