Majeed-Ariss, R orcid.org/0000-0003-0892-4710, Baildam, E, Campbell, M et al. (7 more authors) (2015) Apps and adolescents: A systematic review of adolescents' use of mobile phone and tablet apps that support personal management of their chronic or long-term physical conditions. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17 (12). e287. ISSN 1439-4456
Abstract
Background: The prevalence of physical chronic or long-term conditions in adolescents aged 10-24 years is rising. Mobile phone and tablet mobile technologies featuring software program apps are widely used by these adolescents and their healthy peers for social networking or gaming. Apps are also used in health care to support personal condition management and they have considerable potential in this context. There is a growing body of literature on app use in health contexts, thereby making a systematic review of their effectiveness very timely. Objective: To systematically review the literature on the effectiveness of mobile apps designed to support adolescents' management of their physical chronic or long-term conditions. Methods: We conducted a review of the English-language literature published since 2003 in five relevant bibliographical databases using key search terms. Two independent reviewers screened titles and abstracts using data extraction and quality assessment tools. Results: The search returned 1120 hits. Of the 19 eligible full-text papers, four met our review criteria, reporting one pilot randomized controlled trial and three pretest/post-test studies. Samples ranged from 4 to 18 participants, with a combined sample of 46 participants. The apps reported were targeted at type 1 diabetes, asthma, and cancer. Two papers provided data for calculating effect size. Heterogeneity in terms of study design, reported outcomes, follow-up times, participants' ages, and health conditions prevented meta-analyses. There was variation in whether adolescents received guidance in using the app or were solely responsible for navigating the app. Three studies reported some level of patient involvement in app design, development, and/or evaluation. Health professional involvement in the modelling stages of apps was reported in all studies, although it was not always clear whether specific clinical (as opposed to academic) expertise in working with adolescents was represented. The dearth of studies and the small overall sample size emphasizes the need for future studies of the development, evaluation, use, and effectiveness of mobile apps to support adolescents' personal management of their conditions. Conclusions: A key finding of the review is the paucity of evidence-based apps that exist, in contrast to the thousands of apps available on the app market that are not evidence-based or user or professional informed. Although we aimed to assess the effectiveness of apps, the dearth of studies meeting our criteria meant that we were unable to be conclusive in this regard. Based on the available evidence, apps may be considered feasible health interventions, but more studies involving larger sample sizes, and with patient and health professional input at all stages, are needed to determine apps' acceptability and effectiveness. This review provides valuable findings and paves the way for future rigorous development and evaluation of health apps for adolescents with chronic or long-term conditions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015, Rabiya Majeed-Ariss, Eileen Baildam, Malcolm Campbell, Alice Chieng, Debbie Fallon, Andrew Hall, Janet E McDonagh, Simon R Stones, Wendy Thomson, Veronica Swallow. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 23.12.2015. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Healthcare (Leeds) > Nursing Child (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Healthcare (Leeds) > Nursing Mental Health (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 22 Mar 2016 15:21 |
Last Modified: | 13 Mar 2019 11:24 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.5043 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Journal of Medical Internet Research |
Identification Number: | 10.2196/jmir.5043 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:95631 |