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. 2022 Oct 5;24(10):e37497.
doi: 10.2196/37497.

Mobile Apps for the Management of Gastrointestinal Diseases: Systematic Search and Evaluation Within App Stores

Eva-Maria Messner  1 , Niklas Sturm  2 , Yannik Terhorst  1   3 , Lasse B Sander  4 , Dana Schultchen  5 , Alexandra Portenhauser  1 , Simone Schmidbaur  2 , Michael Stach  6 , Jochen Klaus  2 , Harald Baumeister  1 , Benjamin M Walter  2
Affiliations

Mobile Apps for the Management of Gastrointestinal Diseases: Systematic Search and Evaluation Within App Stores

Eva-Maria Messner et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: Gastrointestinal diseases are associated with substantial cost in health care. In times of the COVID-19 pandemic and further digitalization of gastrointestinal tract health care, mobile health apps could complement routine health care. Many gastrointestinal health care apps are already available in the app stores, but the quality, data protection, and reliability often remain unclear.

Objective: This systematic review aimed to evaluate the quality characteristics as well as the privacy and security measures of mobile health apps for the management of gastrointestinal diseases.

Methods: A web crawler systematically searched for mobile health apps with a focus on gastrointestinal diseases. The identified mobile health apps were evaluated using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). Furthermore, app characteristics, data protection, and security measures were collected. Classic user star rating was correlated with overall mobile health app quality.

Results: The overall quality of the mobile health apps (N=109) was moderate (mean 2.90, SD 0.52; on a scale ranging from 1 to 5). The quality of the subscales ranged from low (mean 1.89, SD 0.66) to good (mean 4.08, SD 0.57). The security of data transfer was ensured only by 11 (10.1%) mobile health apps. None of the mobile health apps had an evidence base. The user star rating did not correlate with the MARS overall score or with the individual subdimensions of the MARS (all P>.05).

Conclusions: Mobile health apps might have a positive impact on diagnosis, therapy, and patient guidance in gastroenterology in the future. We conclude that, to date, data security and proof of efficacy are not yet given in currently available mobile health apps.

Keywords: MARS; Mobile Application Rating Scale; app; app quality; gastrointestinal; gastrointestinal diseases; mHealth; mobile app; mobile health; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: HB codeveloped and run the German Mobile Health App Database (MHAD) project. The MHAD is a self-funded project at Ulm University with no commercial interests. HB, LBS, and EMM received payments for talks and workshops as well as license fees in the context of e-mental health without a specific link to the mobile health apps rated in this paper. All other authors declare no other conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the inclusion process of mobile health apps (MHA).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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