Understanding the quality, effectiveness and attributes of top-rated smartphone health apps
Open accessAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to understand the attributes of popular apps for mental health and comorbid medical conditions, and how these qualities relate to consumer ratings, app quality and classification by the WHO health app classification framework. Methods: We selected the 10 apps from the Apple iTunes store and the US Android Google Play store on 20 July 2018 from six disease states: depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, addiction, diabetes and hypertension. Each app was downloaded by two authors who provided information on the apps’ attributes, functionality, interventions, popularity, scientific backing and WHO app classification rating. Results: A total of 120 apps were examined. Although none of these apps had Food and Drug Administration marketing approval, nearly 50% made claims that appeared medical. Most apps offered a similar type of services with 87.5% assigned WHO classification 1.4.2 ‘self-monitoring of health or diagnostic data by a client’ or 1.6.1 ‘client look-up of health information’. The ‘last updated’ attribute was highly correlated with a quality rating of the app although no apps features (eg, uses Global Positioning System, reminders and so on) were. Conclusion: Due to the heterogeneity of the apps, we were unable to define a core set of features that would accurately assess app quality. The number of apps making unsupported claims combined with the number of apps offering questionable content warrants a cautious approach by both patients and clinicians in selecting safe and effective ones. Clinical Implications: ‘Days since last updated’ offers a useful and easy clinical screening test for health apps, regardless of the condition being examined.
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Other reviews concluded that the quality of evidence supporting the efficacy of mental health apps is insufficient.
“Other reviews have evaluated mental health apps more broadly, concluding that the quality of evidence supporting their efficacy is insufficient (Larsen et al. 2019; Wisniewski et al. 2019)”
From Evaluating the quality, safety, and functionality of commonly used smartphone apps for bipolar disorder mood and sleep self-management (2022) · cites this paper as Wisniewski et al. 2019
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- Authors
- Wisniewski, H., Liu, G., Henson, P., Vaidyam, A., Hajratalli, N. K., Onnela, J.-P., & Torous, J.
- Affiliations
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Torous, John
- Venue
- Evidence Based Mental Health
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2019-01-11
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 4-9
- ISSN
- 1362-0347 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-960X
- PMC
- PMC7061529
- OpenAlex
- W2909561802
- Cited by
- 112
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 7
- FWCI
- 23.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Evidence-Based Mental Health (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Health, Technology, Consumer Behavior
- Keywords
- mobile health apps, app quality, consumer ratings, mental health apps, self-monitoring, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, addiction, diabetes mellitus, hypertension
- MeSH terms
- Smartphone, Mental Disorders, Humans, Telemedicine, Patient Safety, Mobile Applications
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