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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Cancer

Date Submitted: Jul 8, 2023
Date Accepted: Oct 30, 2024

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

The Effect of Nutritional Mobile Apps on Populations With Cancer: Systematic Review

Ng K, Munisamy M, Lim JBY, Al-Shagga M

The Effect of Nutritional Mobile Apps on Populations With Cancer: Systematic Review

JMIR Cancer 2025;11:e50662

DOI: 10.2196/50662

PMID: 39908548

PMCID: 11840368

Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.

Feasibility and effect of nutritional mobile applications in improving cancer outcomes: A systematic review

  • Krystal Ng; 
  • Murallitharan Munisamy; 
  • Joanne Bee Yin Lim; 
  • Mustafa Al-Shagga

ABSTRACT

Background:

Limited access to nutrition support in cancer population is a major barrier to sustainable and quality cancer care. An escalated use of mobile health (mHealth) in healthcare has brought to the concern about its validity and health impacts.

Objective:

This systematic review aims to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of nutritional mobile applications on nutritional outcomes and quality of life in cancer population.

Methods:

A systematic search of the CENTRAL, EMBASE, PubMed (Medline) and SCOPUS databases was carried out in November 2022. The review process was performed based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Titles and abstracts were screened for eligibility based on Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes and Study (PICOS) criteria. Risk of Bias (RoB) 2.0 tool and Risk of Bias Tool for Non-Randomized studies (ROBINS) tool were used to assess the study quality. Cochrane ReviewManager (RevMan) 5.4 software was used to synthesis the results of bias assessment.

Results:

A total of 16 intervention and retrospective studies were included, comprising 1064 adults or teenagers with cancer. Data on anthropometry, body composition, inflammatory markers, nutritional status, dietary intake, as well as quality of life (QoL) were gathered. Several studies in this review reported that experimental groups had significant improvements in body weight, dietary intake, nutritional status, and QoL compared to control groups.

Conclusions:

Use of mobile application may assist in delivering individualized nutrition advices to improve cancer care. Limited evidence is available on the feasibility of nutritional mobile applications in cancer population. More robust randomized control trials with larger sample sizes and high homogeneity of population’ characteristics and outcome measures should be warranted.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Ng K, Munisamy M, Lim JBY, Al-Shagga M

The Effect of Nutritional Mobile Apps on Populations With Cancer: Systematic Review

JMIR Cancer 2025;11:e50662

DOI: 10.2196/50662

PMID: 39908548

PMCID: 11840368

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