Systematic evaluation of content and quality of English and German pain apps in European app stores

Yannik Terhorst; Eva-Maria Messner; Dana Schultchen; Sarah Paganini; Alexandra Portenhauser; Anna-Sophia Eder; Melanie Bauer; Mike Papenhoff; Harald Baumeister; Lasse Bosse Sander

doi:10.1016/j.invent.2021.100376

Systematic evaluation of content and quality of English and German pain apps in European app stores

Internet Interv. 2021 Feb 24:24:100376. doi: 10.1016/j.invent.2021.100376. eCollection 2021 Apr.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Research Methods, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89069 Ulm, Germany.
² Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Lise-Meitner-Str. 16, 89081 Ulm, Germany.
³ Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89069 Ulm, Germany.
⁴ Department of Sport Psychology, University of Freiburg, Schwarzwaldstraße 175, 79117 Freiburg, Germany.
⁵ Pain Medicine Clinic, BG Klinikum Duisburg, Grossenbaumer Allee 250, D-47249 Duisburg, Germany.
⁶ Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Engelberger Str. 41, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.

Abstract

Background and objective: Pain spans a broad spectrum of diseases and types that are highly prevalent and cause substantial disease burden for individuals and society. Up to 40% of people affected by pain receive no or inadequate treatment. Providing a scalable, time-, and location-independent way for pain diagnostic, management, prevention and treatment mobile health applications (MHA) might be a promising approach to improve health care for pain. However, the commercial app market is rapidly growing and unregulated, resulting in an opaque market. Studies investigating the content, privacy and security features, quality and scientific evidence of the available apps are highly needed, to guide patients and clinicians to high quality MHA.Contributing to this challenge, the present study investigates the content, quality, and privacy features of pain apps available in the European app stores.

Methods: An automated search engine was used to identify pain apps in the European Google Play and Apple App store. Pain apps were screened and checked for systematic criteria (pain-relatedness, functionality, availability, independent usability, English or German). Content, quality and privacy features were assessed by two independent reviewers using the German Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS-G). The MARS-G assesses quality on four objectives (engagement, functionality, aesthetics, information quality) and two subjective scales (perceived impact, subjective quality).

Results: Out of 1034 identified pain apps 218 were included. Pain apps covered eight different pain types. Content included basic information, advice, assessment and tracking, and stand-alone interventions. The overall quality of the pain apps was average M = 3.13 (SD = 0.56, min = 1, max = 4.69). The effectiveness of less than 1% of the included pain apps was evaluated in a randomized controlled trial. Major problems with data privacy were present: 59% provided no imprint, 70% had no visible privacy policy.

Conclusion: A multitude of pain apps is available. Most MHA lack scientific evaluation and have serious privacy issues, posing a potential threat to users. Further research on evidence and improvements privacy and security are needed. Overall, the potential of pain apps is not exploited.

Keywords: MARS; Mobile health apps; Pain; e-Health.