Open AccessEvaluation of Mobile Apps Targeted at Patients With Spondyloarthritis for Disease Monitoring: Systematic App Search
Author(s) -
Yu Heng Kwan,
Wei Jie Ong,
Mengfei Xiong,
Ying Ying Leung,
Jie Kie Phang,
Charmaine Tze May Wang,
Warren Fong
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
jmir mhealth and uhealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.356
H-Index - 50
ISSN - 2291-5222
DOI - 10.2196/14753
Subject(s) - medicine , mobile apps , psoriatic arthritis , disease , app store , mhealth , physical therapy , world wide web , computer science , psychiatry , psychological intervention
Background There are many apps developed for patients with spondyloarthritis in the market, but their purpose and quality are not objectively evaluated. Objective The objective of this study was to identify and evaluate existing publicly available, high-quality apps that use validated measurement instruments for monitoring spondyloarthritis disease activity. Methods We conducted a review of apps available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store based on a combination of keywords and inclusion and exclusion criteria. Validated disease activity measurement instruments were identified. Data regarding app characteristics, including the presence of validated disease activity measurement, were extracted. The Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) was used to review the apps for user experience. Results A total of 1253 apps were identified in the app stores, and 5 apps met the criteria and were further analyzed. Moreover, 2 apps (MySpA and Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis App) contained some of the validated disease activity monitoring instruments for specific spondyloarthritis subtypes. These 2 apps were also rated good on the MARS (with total mean scores ≥4 out of 5), whereas the other apps scored poorly in comparison. Conclusions There are 2 high-quality spondyloarthritis disease activity monitoring apps publicly available, but they only target 2 spondyloarthritis subtypes—ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis. There is a lack of high-quality apps that can measure disease activity for other spondyloarthritis subtypes, and no app that consolidates all validated disease activity instruments across subtypes was available.