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Cited by 43Digital Mental Health InterventionsMobile Health and mHealth ApplicationsHealth Literacy and Information Accessibility

Quality of Smartphone Apps Related to Panic Disorder

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Van Singer, Mathias, Chatton, Anne, Khazaal, Yasser·2015·Frontiers in Psychiatry
DOI 10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00096PMC PMC4500864
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Abstract

Quality of smartphone apps related to panic: smartphone apps have a growing role in health care. This study assessed the quality of English-language apps for panic disorder (PD) and compared paid and free apps. Keywords related to PD were entered into the Google Play Store search engine. Apps were assessed using the following quality indicators: accountability, interactivity, self-help score (the potential of smartphone apps to help users in daily life), and evidence-based content quality. The Brief DISCERN score and the criteria of the "Health on the Net" label were also used as content quality indicators as well as the number of downloads. Of 247 apps identified, 52 met all inclusion criteria. The content quality and self-help scores of these PD apps were poor. None of the assessed indicators were associated with payment status or number of downloads. Multiple linear regressions showed that the Brief DISCERN score significantly predicted the content quality and self-help scores. Poor content quality and self-help scores of PD smartphone apps highlight the gap between their technological potential and the overall quality of available products.

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  • The emerging field of m-mental health is in its infancy as many available apps lack scientific evidence or show poor content quality.

    “However, the emerging field of m-mental health can still be described as being in its infancy as many available apps lack scientific evidence (Donker et al., 2013; Sucala et al., 2017) or show poor content quality (Singer et al., 2015).”

    From A mobile application for panic disorder and agoraphobia: Insights from a multi-methods feasibility study (2020) · cites this paper as Singer et al., 2015

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Van Singer, M., Chatton, A., & Khazaal, Y.
Affiliations
  • University Hospital of Geneva (CH)
  • University of Geneva (CH)
Corresponding author
Khazaal, Yasser
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Psychiatry
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2015-07-14
Volume
6
Pages
96-96
ISSN
1664-0640 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00096
PMC
PMC4500864
OpenAlex
W1597488657
Cited by
43
References
20
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 5
FWCI
9.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Frontiers in Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
Keywords
panic disorder, mobile application, app quality, mobile health, evidence-based content, app downloads

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