The DOI matches its Crossref record; 41 of the 41 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
“There’s a Pain App for That”: Review of Patient-targeted Smartphone Applications for Pain Management
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: There are a growing number of pain self-management applications (apps) available for users to download on personal smartphones. The purpose of this study was to critically appraise the content and self-management functionality of currently available pain apps. METHODS: An electronic search was conducted between May and June 2014 of the official stores for the 4 major operating systems. Two authors independently identified patient-focused apps with a stated goal of pain management. Discrepancies regarding selection were resolved through discussion with a third party. Metadata from all included apps were abstracted into a standard form. The content and functionality of each app as it pertained to pain self-management was rated. RESULTS: A total of 279 apps met the inclusion criteria. Pain self-care skill support was the most common self-management function (77.4%). Apps also purported providing patients with the ability to engage in pain education (45.9%), self-monitoring (19%), social support (3.6%), and goal-setting (0.72%). No apps were comprehensive in terms of pain self-management, with the majority of apps including only a single self-management function (58.5%). In addition, only 8.2% of apps included a health care professional in their development, not a single app provided a theoretical rationale, and only 1 app underwent scientific evaluation. DISCUSSION: Currently available pain self-management apps for patients are simplistic, lack the involvement of health care professionals in their development, and have not been rigorously tested for effectiveness on pain-related health outcomes. There is a need to develop and test theoretically and evidence-based apps to better support patients with accessible pain care self-management.
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“Overall, the findings show that the majority of available applications do not follow evidence-based guidelines, do not involve health care providers or experts in the development process, and have not undergone any scientific studies of effect and/or validity.”
From ACTsmart: Guided Smartphone-Delivered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain—A Pilot Trial. (2021) · cites this paper as [32]
In the citing paper
“One significant challenge is the lack of guidance and involvement of health care providers and intended users in the development process [21,27,32-37].”
From A User-Centered Approach to an Evidence-Based Electronic Health Pain Management Intervention for People With Chronic Pain: Design and Development of EPIO (2020) · cites this paper as [34]
In the citing paper
“The process combining evidence-based and user-centered approaches is a previously recommended but underutilized approach to eHealth intervention development [27,33,34].”
From A User-Centered Approach to an Evidence-Based Electronic Health Pain Management Intervention for People With Chronic Pain: Design and Development of EPIO (2020) · cites this paper as [34]
In the citing paper
“The lack of user involvement (ie, patients and health care providers) and human centeredness in development of eHealth interventions have been criticized repeatedly [5,21,27,32,34,36,39], and this lack of user involvement in the development process can potentially also explain the high attrition rates and low adherence associated with such interventions [32,40-42].”
From A User-Centered Approach to an Evidence-Based Electronic Health Pain Management Intervention for People With Chronic Pain: Design and Development of EPIO (2020) · cites this paper as [34]
In the citing paper
“Despite these facts, the development of evidence-based eHealth pain management interventions has been limited [33-35], as has the incorporation of user involvement in these processes.”
From A User-Centered Approach to an Evidence-Based Electronic Health Pain Management Intervention for People With Chronic Pain: Design and Development of EPIO (2020) · cites this paper as [34]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Lalloo, C., Jibb, L. A., Rivera, J., Agarwal, A., & Stinson, J. N.
- Affiliations
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Great Ormond Street Hospital (GB)
- McMaster University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Lalloo, Chitra
- Jibb, Lindsay A.
- Rivera, Jordan
- Stinson, Jennifer N.
- Venue
- The Clinical Journal of Pain
- Published
- 2015-06
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 557-563
- ISSN
- 0749-8047 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1985859049
- Cited by
- 257
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 5
- FWCI
- 2.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Clinical Journal of Pain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Opioid Use
- Keywords
- pain self-management, mobile health apps, mobile application, pain education, self-monitoring, social support
- MeSH terms
- Smartphone, Humans, Self Care, Pain Management, Mobile Applications
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