Mobile Apps for the Management of Gastrointestinal Diseases: Systematic Search and Evaluation Within App Stores

Eva-Maria Messner; Niklas Sturm; Yannik Terhorst; Lasse B Sander; Dana Schultchen; Alexandra Portenhauser; Simone Schmidbaur; Michael Stach; Jochen Klaus; Harald Baumeister; Benjamin M Walter

doi:10.2196/37497

Mobile Apps for the Management of Gastrointestinal Diseases: Systematic Search and Evaluation Within App Stores

J Med Internet Res. 2022 Oct 5;24(10):e37497. doi: 10.2196/37497.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology and Education, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
² Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
³ Department of Research Methods, Institute of Psychology and Education, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
⁴ Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Freiburg at Breisgau, Germany.
⁵ Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
⁶ Institute of Databases and Information Systems, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.

PMID: 36197717
PMCID: PMC9582913
DOI: 10.2196/37497

Abstract

Background: Gastrointestinal diseases are associated with substantial cost in health care. In times of the COVID-19 pandemic and further digitalization of gastrointestinal tract health care, mobile health apps could complement routine health care. Many gastrointestinal health care apps are already available in the app stores, but the quality, data protection, and reliability often remain unclear.

Objective: This systematic review aimed to evaluate the quality characteristics as well as the privacy and security measures of mobile health apps for the management of gastrointestinal diseases.

Methods: A web crawler systematically searched for mobile health apps with a focus on gastrointestinal diseases. The identified mobile health apps were evaluated using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). Furthermore, app characteristics, data protection, and security measures were collected. Classic user star rating was correlated with overall mobile health app quality.

Results: The overall quality of the mobile health apps (N=109) was moderate (mean 2.90, SD 0.52; on a scale ranging from 1 to 5). The quality of the subscales ranged from low (mean 1.89, SD 0.66) to good (mean 4.08, SD 0.57). The security of data transfer was ensured only by 11 (10.1%) mobile health apps. None of the mobile health apps had an evidence base. The user star rating did not correlate with the MARS overall score or with the individual subdimensions of the MARS (all P>.05).

Conclusions: Mobile health apps might have a positive impact on diagnosis, therapy, and patient guidance in gastroenterology in the future. We conclude that, to date, data security and proof of efficacy are not yet given in currently available mobile health apps.

Keywords: MARS; Mobile Application Rating Scale; app; app quality; gastrointestinal; gastrointestinal diseases; mHealth; mobile app; mobile health; systematic review.

©Eva-Maria Messner, Niklas Sturm, Yannik Terhorst, Lasse B Sander, Dana Schultchen, Alexandra Portenhauser, Simone Schmidbaur, Michael Stach, Jochen Klaus, Harald Baumeister, Benjamin M Walter. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 05.10.2022.

Publication types

Systematic Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Gastrointestinal Diseases* / therapy
Humans
Mobile Applications*
Pandemics
Reproducibility of Results
Telemedicine*