CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 11Traumatic Brain Injury ResearchMobile Health and mHealth ApplicationsDigital Mental Health Interventions

Quality of Psychoeducational Apps for Military Members With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: An Evaluation Utilizing the Mobile Application Rating Scale

Open access
Jones, Chelsea, O'Toole, Kaitlin, Jones, Kevin, Brémault-Phillips, Suzette·2020·JMIR mHealth and uHealth
DOI 10.2196/19807PMC PMC7463411

Published version of a preprint

Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Background: Military personnel have an elevated risk of sustaining mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) and postconcussion symptoms (PCS). Smartphone apps that provide psychoeducation may assist those with mTBI or PCS to overcome unique barriers that military personnel experience with stigma and access to health care resources. Objective: This study aims to (1) use the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) to evaluate smartphone apps purporting to provide psychoeducation for those who have sustained an mTBI or a PCS; (2) explore the relevance, utility, and effectiveness of these apps in facilitating symptom management and overall recovery from mTBI and PCS among military personnel; and (3) discuss considerations pertinent to health care professionals and patients with mTBI when considering the use of mobile health (mHealth), including apps for mTBI psychoeducation. Methods: A five-step systematic search for smartphone apps for military members with mTBI or PCS was conducted on January 31, 2020. Cost-free apps meeting the inclusion criteria were evaluated using the MARS and compared with evidence-based best practice management protocols for mTBI and PCS. Results: The search yielded a total of 347 smartphone apps. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 13 apps were subjected to evaluation. Two apps were endorsed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the US Department of Defense; all the others (n=11) were developed for civilians. When compared with evidence-based best practice resources, the apps provided various levels of psychoeducational content. There are multiple considerations that health care professionals and those who sustain an mTBI or a PCS have to consider when choosing to use mHealth and selecting a specific app for mTBI psychoeducation. These may include factors such as the app platform, developer, internet requirement, cost, frequency of updates, language, additional features, acknowledgment of mental health, accessibility, military specificity, and privacy and security of data. Conclusions: Psychoeducational interventions have a good evidence base as a treatment for mTBI and PCS. The use of apps for this purpose may be clinically effective, cost-effective, confidential, user friendly, and accessible. However, more research is needed to explore the effectiveness, usability, safety, security, and accessibility of apps designed for mTBI management.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.2196/19807

Cites

40 of 40 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • mHealth apps may fill a gap for those who require mental health treatment but face barriers such as stigma to visible help-seeking, long waiting times, high job mobility, and geographic restrictions.

    “In addition, mHealth apps may fill a gap for those who require mental health treatment but are faced with barriers, such as stigma to visible help-seeking, long waiting times, a high mobility of their jobs, and geographic restrictions [8,30,33,34], all of which have been noted as problematic for the MMs, PSP, and veteran populations.”

    From Efficacy, Effectiveness, and Quality of Resilience-Building Mobile Health Apps for Military, Veteran, and Public Safety Personnel Populations: Scoping Literature Review and App Evaluation (2022) · cites this paper as [8]

    The Introduction’s Background section says apps may decrease stigma, reduce wait times, and offer mental health support to military members and veterans concerned about stigmatization. The Conclusions also identify geographical isolation as a barrier apps may help address. The paper does not identify high job mobility as a barrier, so that part of the attributed claim is unsupported. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The lack of empirical research to demonstrate the effectiveness of apps on resilience may be related to the short time frame during which mHealth apps have emerged and the speed at which their availability changes.

    “The lack of empirical research to demonstrate the effectiveness of apps on resilience may be related to the short time frame during which mHealth apps have emerged and the speed at which their availability changes [8].”

    From Efficacy, Effectiveness, and Quality of Resilience-Building Mobile Health Apps for Military, Veteran, and Public Safety Personnel Populations: Scoping Literature Review and App Evaluation (2022) · cites this paper as [8]

    The Discussion’s ‘Health Care Use and Future Direction’ section (page not provided) suggests that limited effectiveness research may reflect how recently mHealth apps emerged and how quickly their availability changes. That finding concerns psychoeducational and mTBI-management apps; the passage does not address apps for resilience. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Traditional study design and research methods may be inappropriate for the study of mHealth as technology evolves much faster than traditional evidence-based research.

    “traditional study design and research methods may be inappropriate for the study of mHealth as technology evolves much faster than traditional evidence-based research [8,60].”

    From Efficacy, Effectiveness, and Quality of Resilience-Building Mobile Health Apps for Military, Veteran, and Public Safety Personnel Populations: Scoping Literature Review and App Evaluation (2022) · cites this paper as [8]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [8]Marshall S Bayley M McCullagh S Berrigan L Fischer L Ouchterlony D Rockwell C Velikonja D Guidelines for Concussion /Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Prolonged Symptoms Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation 2018 2020-04-01 https://onf.org/3rd-edition-guidelines-for-concussion-mild-traumatic-brain-injury-and-persistent-symptoms/
  2. [42]Owings-Fonner N A Review of Meditation Apps for Adults. Let's Get Technical: A Review of the Latest Apps and Tools for Practicing Psychologists American Psychological Assocaition 2019 2020-05-09 https://www.apaservices.org/practice/business/technology/tech-column/apps-tools-psychologists

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Jones, C., O'Toole, K., Jones, K., & Brémault-Phillips, S.
Affiliations
Department of National Defence (CA)
Corresponding author
Jones, Chelsea
ORCID
Venue
JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Publisher
JMIR Publications Inc.
Published
2020-08-18
Volume
8
Issue
8
Pages
e19807
ISSN
2291-5222 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.2196/19807
PMC
PMC7463411
OpenAlex
W3043789087
Cited by
11
References
39
Citations by year
2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 1
FWCI
1.79
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • JMIR mhealth and uhealth (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Traumatic Brain Injury Research
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
Keywords
mild traumatic brain injury, post-concussion symptoms, psychoeducation, mobile application, mobile health, military personnel, app quality assessment, Mobile App Rating Scale, symptom management, barriers to care, data privacy and security
MeSH terms
Brain Concussion, Humans, Mental Health, Military Personnel, United States, Telemedicine, Mobile Applications

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review