[The mobile applications developed for self-control arterial pressure: systematic review and content-analysis]

Abstract

The high prevalence of arterial hypertension and necessity for permanent monitoring of blood pressure requires implementation of new methods of interaction between patient and physician in order to optimize medical care. The purpose of the study was to describe and to evaluate functional possibilities of Russian-speaking mobile applications utilized in collecting blood pressure readings to monitor efficiency of arterial hypertension treatment. The study was carried out in June 2023 in three mobile application stores: Apple Store, Google Play and RuStore. The Russian-speaking applications applied to hypertension self-controlling were considered. For final analysis 45 mobile applications were selected out of 380 applications tested. The most common functions, besides fixing blood pressure levels, were ability of fixing pulse rate (n=41), weight (n=21), sugar level (n=10), blood oxygen saturation (n=8), cholesterol (n=6), rhythm disturbances (n=6) and body temperature (n=5). Additionally, applications made it possible to add tags (n=33), to view statistics (n=41) (including average blood pressure (n=8), pulse pressure (n=9), average daily blood pressure (n=6) and to compare data for different periods of time (n=6), to filter data by tags (n=17), to export statistics (n=32). The 6 applications also supported technology of wireless reception of blood pressure and emergency data. The educational information about blood pressure was enclosed in 17 applications and dietary advice in 12 applications. The content included basic information about blood pressure, treatment, diet, and physical activity. No clinical studies that proved efficiency or inefficiency of analyzed applications were found. None of descriptions comprised both involvement of physicians in development of application and use of clinical recommendations. The results demonstrated large choice of applications used in recording blood pressure with purpose of hypertension self-control. Besides, mobile applications contain various functions and their combinations that can help patient to control blood pressure more effectively. The physicians are to be aware of capabilities of mobile applications developed with purpose of monitoring health of patients.

Keywords: arterial hypertension; mHealth; mobile applications; review; self-control of blood pressure.