A Review of Apps for Calming, Relaxation, and Mindfulness Interventions for Pediatric Palliative Care Patients
Open accessAbstract
Patients and families increasingly use mobile apps as a relaxation and distraction intervention for children with complex, chronic medical conditions in the waiting room setting or during inpatient hospitalizations; and yet, there is limited data on app quality assessment or review of these apps for level of engagement, functionality, aesthetics, or applicability for palliative pediatric patients. The pediatric palliative care study team searched smartphone application platforms for apps relevant to calming, relaxation, and mindfulness for pediatric and adolescent patients. Apps were reviewed using a systematic data extraction tool. Validated Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) scores were determined by two blinded reviewers. Apps were then characterized by infant, child, adolescent, and adult caregiver group categories. Reviewer discussion resulted in consensus. Sixteen of the 22 apps identified were included in the final analysis. The apps operated on either iOS or Android platforms. All were available in English with four available in Spanish. Apps featured a relaxation approach (12/16), soothing images (8/16), and breathing techniques (8/16). Mood and sleep patterns were the main symptoms targeted by apps. Provision of mobile apps resource summary has the potential to foster pediatric palliative care providers’ knowledge of app functionality and applicability as part of ongoing patient care.
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.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
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.
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?
The MARS scores in [38] are for general tinnitus apps such as Beltone Tinnitus Calmer, Relax Noise 3, ReSound Relief, myNoise, Tinnitus Therapy (Lite), and White Noise (Lite), while MARS scores in [52] are for mindfulness and cognitive behavior therapy apps such as Relax Melodies and MindShift CBT.
“The MARS scores in [38] are for general tinnitus apps such as Beltone Tinnitus Calmer, Relax Noise 3, ReSound Relief, myNoise, Tinnitus Therapy (Lite), and White Noise (Lite), while MARS scores in [52] are given for mindfulness and cognitive behavior therapy apps such as Relax Melodies and MindShift CBT.”
From Smartphone and mobile health apps for tinnitus: Systematic identification, analysis, and assessment (2020) · cites this paper as [52]
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
Mobile app rating scale: a new tool for assessing the quality of health mobile apps
Stoyanov, S. R., Hides, L., Kavanagh, D. J., Zelenko, O., Tjondronegoro, D., & Mani, M. (2015) · JMIR mHealth and uHealth · doi:10.2196/mhealth.3422 · Cited by 2,233 · see citing works
Mikolasek, M., Berg, J., Witt, C. M., & Barth, J. (2018) · International Journal of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1007/s12529-017-9679-7 · Cited by 105 · see citing works
Children having magnetic resonance imaging
Törnqvist, E., Månsson, Å., & Hallström, I. (2014) · Journal of Child Health Care · doi:10.1177/1367493513518374 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Distraction techniques in children during venipuncture: an Italian experience
Bagnasco, A., Pezzi, E., Rosa, F., Fornonil, L., & Sasso, L. (2015) · Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene · doi:10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2012.53.1.314 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Roy, M. J., Costanzo, M. E., Highland, K. B., Olsen, C., Clayborne, D., & Law, W. (2017) · Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · doi:10.1089/cyber.2017.0221 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Munster-Segev, M., Fuerst, O., Kaplan, S. A., & Cahn, A. (2017) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/mhealth.7408 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
CULBERT, T. P. (2017) · Children · doi:10.3390/children4040020 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Mobile Application Rating Scale
Stoyanov, S. R., Hides, L. M., Kavanagh, D. J., Zelenko, О., Tjondronegoro, D., & Mani, M. (2015) · PsycTESTS Dataset · doi:10.1037/t84405-000 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [10]Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame version 1.5.7 Sesame Workshop New York, NY, USA 2016
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Lau, N., O'Daffer, A., Colt, S., Yi-Frazier, J. P., Palermo, T. M., McCauley, E., & Rosenberg, A. R. (2020) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/17798 · Cited by 174 · see citing works
Adverse Childhood Experiences, Outcomes, and Interventions
Gilgoff, R., Singh, L. B., Koita, K., Gentile, B., & Marques, S. S. (2020) · Pediatric Clinics of North America · doi:10.1016/j.pcl.2019.12.001 · Cited by 168 · see citing works
McKay, F. H., Slykerman, S., & Dunn, M. (2018) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/11130 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Duarte, Á. O., Mediavilla, R., Muñoz‐Sanjosé, A., Palao, Á., Garde, J., López-Herrero, V., Bravo‐Ortiz, M. F., Bayón, C., & Vega, B. R. (2021) · Medical Teacher · doi:10.1080/0142159x.2021.1887835 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Delivering Pediatric Palliative Care: From Denial, Palliphobia, Pallilalia to Palliactive
Friedrichsdorf, S. J., & Bruera, E. D. (2018) · Children · doi:10.3390/children5090120 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Identification of Digital Health Priorities for Palliative Care Research: Modified Delphi Study
Nwosu, A. C., McGlinchey, T., Sanders, J. J., Stanley, S., Palfrey, J., Lubbers, P., Chapman, L., Finucane, A., & Mason, S. R. (2021) · JMIR Aging · doi:10.2196/32075 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Siddique, A. B., Krebs, M., Alvarez, S., Greenspan, I., Patel, A., Kinsolving, J., & Koizumi, N. (2019) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/12604 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Cunningham, N. R., Ely, S. L., Garcia, B. N. B., & Bowden, J. (2021) · Academic Pediatrics · doi:10.1016/j.acap.2021.06.002 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Alamoodi, A., Garfan, S., Zaidan, B. B., Zaidan, A., Shuwandy, M. L., Alaa, M., Alsalem, M., Mohammed, A., Aleesa, A. M., Albahri, O., et al. (2020) · Health technology · doi:10.1007/s12553-020-00451-4 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Smartphone and mobile health apps for tinnitus: Systematic identification, analysis, and assessment
Mehdi, M., Stach, M., Riha, C., Neff, P., Dode, A., Pryss, R., Schlee, W., Reichert, M., & Hauck, F. J. (2020) · JMIR mHealth and uHealth · doi:10.2196/21767 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
“Since the objective MARS scores calculated in this paper and PsyberGuide and ORCHA ratings (apart from PsyberGuide’s user experience) are incomparable, a separate chart (Figure 5) depicts a comparison of MARS scores from our study with those from 2 papers from literature [38,52] and with PsyberGuide’s user experience…”
MethodResultLau, N., O’Daffer, A., Yi‐Frazier, J. P., & Rosenberg, A. R. (2021) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/29689 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Wu, J., Ma, Y., Zuo, Y., Zheng, K., Zhou, Z., Qin, Y., & Ren, Z. (2022) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.773296 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Review and Implementation of Self-Help and Automated Tools in Mental Health Care
Chan, S. R., Li, L., Torous, J. B., Gratzer, D., & Yellowlees, P. (2019) · Psychiatric Clinics of North America · doi:10.1016/j.psc.2019.07.001 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Online mental health communities, self-efficacy and transition to further support
Prescott, J., Rathbone, A. L., & Hanley, T. (2020) · Mental Health Review Journal · doi:10.1108/mhrj-12-2019-0048 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Wantanakorn, P., Harintajinda, S., Chuthapisith, J., Anurathapan, U., & Rattanatamrong, P. (2018) · Hospital Pediatrics · doi:10.1542/hpeds.2018-0073 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
An Interactive Smartphone App, Nenne Navi, for Improving Children’s Sleep: Pilot Usability Study
Yoshizaki, A., Mohri, I., Yamamoto, T., Shirota, A., Okada, S., Murata, E., Hoshino, K., Kato-Nishimura, K., Matsuzawa, S., Kato, T., et al. (2020) · JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting · doi:10.2196/22102 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
HPNA 2019-2022 Research Agenda
Romo, R. D., Carpenter, J. G., Buck, H. G., Lindley, L. C., Xu, J., Owen, J. A., Sullivan, S. S., Bakitas, M. A., Dionne-Odom, J. N., Zubkoff, L., et al. (2019) · Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing · doi:10.1097/njh.0000000000000580 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Zhang, H., Gil, T. S., & Kang, E. (2018) · 보건교육·건강증진학회지 · doi:10.14367/kjhep.2018.35.3.41 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Understanding User Perceptions of Response Delays in Crowd-Powered Conversational Systems
Abbas, T., Gadiraju, U., Khan, V.-J., & Markopoulos, P. (2022) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3555765 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Rules Of Engagement: Levelling Up To Combat Unethical CUI Design
Mildner, T., Doyle, P. R., Savino, G.-L., & Malaka, R. (2022) · International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces · doi:10.1145/3543829.3544528 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Hartley, M., Dorstyn, D., & Due, C. (2022) · Research in Autism · doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2022.101991 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Vanderloo, L. M., Carsley, S., Agarwal, P., Marini, F. C., Dennis, C., & Birken, C. S. (2021) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/27533 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Gazerani, P. (2025) · Current Pain and Headache Reports · doi:10.1007/s11916-025-01366-3 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Smart Sensor Based on Biofeedback to Measure Child Relaxation in Out-of-Home Care
Jaramillo-Quintanar, D., Cruz-Albarrán, I. A., Guzmán-Sandoval, V. M., & Morales-Hernandez, L. A. (2020) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s20154194 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Jibb, L., Amoako, E., Heisey, M., Ren, L. Y., & Grundy, Q. (2022) · Archives of Disease in Childhood · doi:10.1136/archdischild-2021-323292 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Neher, T. L., Green, J., Puzia, M., & Huberty, J. (2021) · Child & Youth Care Forum · doi:10.1007/s10566-021-09651-z · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Narrative review of home care for palliative patients in general practice
Despotova-Toleva, L., & Toleva-Nowak, N. (2021) · Annals of Palliative Medicine · doi:10.21037/apm-2021-01 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Technology to Assess and Treat Pain in Pediatric Rheumatology
Connelly, M. A., & Lee, R. R. (2021) · Rheumatic Disease Clinics of North America · doi:10.1016/j.rdc.2021.09.004 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Understanding the Needs of Primary School Teachers in Supporting Their Students' Emotion Regulation
Petrovic, J., Mettler, J., Argento, A., Carsley, D., Bloom, E. L., Sullivan, S., & Heath, N. L. (2022) · Journal of School Health · doi:10.1111/josh.13191 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Kang, Y.-M., Yeo, A., & Lee, S. (2025) · International Journal of Clinical Pediatric Dentistry · doi:10.5005/jp-journals-10005-2992 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Lau, N., O’Daffer, A., Yi‐Frazier, J. P., & Rosenberg, A. R. (2021) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/27105 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Rathbone, A., Clarry, L., Prescott, J., & Hanley, T. (2024) · Mental Health and Digital Technologies · doi:10.1108/mhdt-12-2023-0004 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Reviewing Mobile Apps for Teaching Human Anatomy: Search and Quality Evaluation Study
García, G. E. R., López, M. J. C., Vázquez, J. C. R., Castillo, A. L., & Casados, J. C. (2025) · JMIR Medical Education · doi:10.2196/64550 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Innovative Strategies for Addressing Adolescent Health in Primary Care Through Telehealth
Chiccarelli, E. N., North, S., & Pasternak, R. H. (2024) · Pediatric Clinics of North America · doi:10.1016/j.pcl.2024.04.006 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Digital Health and Palliative Care
Nwosu, A. C., Stanley, S., Norris, J., & Taubert, M. (2025) · Synthesis lectures on technology and health · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-04277-4_3 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Recommendations for the Development of Augmented Reality Video Games for Children with ADHD
Castañeda, A. M., Rios, O. C., & Díaz, E. (2024) · Communications in computer and information science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-63616-5_24 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Utilização de recursos multimídia para crianças em contexto hospitalar: uma revisão integrativa
de Carvalho, S. R., dos Santos, P. Â. C. H., Moreira, A. A. D. F. G., & Campos, A. (2020) · Revista Educação Especial · doi:10.5902/1984686x38894 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Friedrichsdorf, S. J. (2019) · MDPI eBooks · doi:10.3390/books978-3-03897-351-5 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Digitales Wohlbefinden und Salutogenese [Digital Well-Being and Salutogenesis]Preprint
Schneider, F. M., & Halfmann, A. (2019) · doi:10.31235/osf.io/6fcsg · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Design de Jogos Digitais Terapêuticos que Apoiam o Diálogo com Crianças sobre a Morte
Verhalen, A. E. C. (2022) · doi:10.11606/d.55.2022.tde-02062023-085520 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Shal, R. S. (2019) · Jundishapur Journal of Chronic Disease Care · doi:10.5812/jjcdc.12215
A Data Analytics Strategy to Identify mHealth Apps Quality Improvements. A Case Study
Montenegro, C., Armas, R., Larco, A., & Yanez, C. (2021) · International Conference on Medical and Health Informatics (ICMHI) · doi:10.1145/3472813.3473209
Weck, C. E. (2021) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-662-62011-3_25
Experiential Learning for Telehealth in Sports Science and Allied Health
Mentor, D., & Leach, L. L. (2022) · Advances in multimedia and interactive technologies book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-6684-3996-8.ch014
Mindfulness and its Application for Mind–Body Challenges in Children and Adolescents
Choudhury, A., Clare, C., Koduri, S., & Saxena, K. (2023) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-18377-5_32
Exploring needs, interests and preferences for digital mind-body tools for adolescents.
Sangameswaran, S., Xie, S. J., Garrison, M. M., Rosenberg, D. E., Yip, J. C., & Hartzler, A. L. (2022) · PubMed Central
Digitales Wohlbefinden und Salutogenese
Schneider, F. M., & Halfmann, A. (2019) · merz | medien + erziehung · doi:10.21240/merz/2019.1.11
Elouali, M., Elouali, N., Elouali, A., & Elouali, F. Z. (2025) · Journal of Information Communication and Ethics in Society · doi:10.1108/jices-06-2024-0079
Saputra, J. C., Setyosarı, P., & Ulfa, S. U. (2025) · JKTP Jurnal Kajian Teknologi Pendidikan · doi:10.17977/um038v8i22025p107
TECNOLOGIA MÓVEL A SERVIÇO DO CUIDADO FAMILIAR EM PEDIATRIA PALIATIVA: REVISÃO INTEGRATIVA
Carneiro, L. D. P., Alves, K. S. B., Gadelha, M. V., Santana, A. R., Leite, S. V. M., Carlos, R. C., Araújo, P. V. C., & Araújo, P. V. C. (2025) · Cognitus Interdisciplinary Journal · doi:10.71248/8xrk8y88
A meta-analysis of digital interventions to reduce vaccination-related pain in children
Tololiu, K. E., Kurnianto, A. A., Dulahu, W. Y., Kocsor, F., & Csókási, K. (2025) · Vaccine X · doi:10.1016/j.jvacx.2025.100736
Ocean Heartstring: An Interactive System for Youth Eco-Mindfulness and Relaxation
Mao, X. J. (2026) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-30083-6_11
Prescott, J., Rathbone, A. L., Clarry, L., & Hanley, T. (2025) · University of Law: Publications Repository
- Authors
- Weekly, T., Walker, N., Beck, J., Akers, S., & Weaver, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Nebraska Medical Center (US)
- Children's Hospital & Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Weaver, Meaghann
- Venue
- Children
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2018-01-26
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 16
- ISSN
- 2227-9067 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5835985
- OpenAlex
- W2282652809
- Cited by
- 53
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 4
- FWCI
- 11.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Children (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- 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 › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues
- Keywords
- mobile health apps, pediatric palliative care, relaxation intervention, mindfulness, app quality assessment, breathing exercises, children and adolescents, caregivers
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
