Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Nov 11, 2024
Date Accepted: Sep 5, 2025
Sustainability Evaluation of Mobile Health Applications and Wearables: Protocol for Systematic Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
The mobile health (mHealth) technology is widely used in healthcare systems globally to improve patients' quality of life and reduce the burden on caregivers. The mobile applications allow users to manage different health-related situations from their homes, such as self-monitoring their symptoms, keeping track of progress, and maintaining a profile for a particular condition. However, the benefits of mHealth applications are compromised due to a lack of sustainability evaluation. Currently, there is a lack of all-inclusive research that presents the sustainability evaluation of mHealth solutions. Thus, it is important to evaluate the sustainability of newly proposed or already in-use mHealth solutions.
Objective:
The objective of this systematic literature review is to deeply understand and analyze different dimensions of sustainability in the healthcare domain and identify existing evaluation criteria and frameworks for mHealth solutions.
Methods:
This protocol was developed following the PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols) guidelines. A planned and systematic approach will be employed to identify, evaluate, and synthesize relevant studies reported in English. We have conducted a systematic search focusing on the search terms related to sustainable healthcare, mHealth solutions, and evaluation or assessment criteria in digital databases of Scopus, Web of Science, ACM, PubMed, PubMed Central, and CINAHL.
Results:
Preliminary searches have been conducted, and 1368 relevant papers have been found eligible for further screening based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Conclusions:
This protocol will guide the review of existing literature on essential aspects of the sustainability of mHealth solutions and evaluation frameworks. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed systematic review will be the first review to extensively study essential concepts related to defining sustainable mHealth solutions, identifying key dimensions founding the basis for evaluation frameworks, and discussing the existing sustainability evaluation frameworks for mHealth solutions. Clinical Trial: PROSPERO CRD42024599333
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Copyright
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