ArticleBMC medical informatics and decision making2016
Development and validation of the Italian version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale and its generalisability to apps targeting primary prevention.
Article in BMC medical informatics and decision making, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Evaluation of fatty liver disease self-care applications: a systematic review and evaluation of apps using the mobile application rating scale (MARS).BMC gastroenterology · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Mobile Apps for the Management of Gastrointestinal Diseases: Systematic Search and Evaluation Within App Stores.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Pooled it
- Criteria for assessing the quality of mHealth apps: a systematic review.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2018Pooled it
- Enhancing psychological skills and well-being in sport through an app-based blended intervention: a randomized controlled pilot study.BMC psychology · 2025Trial
- A Community and Technology-Based Approach for Hypertension Self-Management (COACHMAN) to Improve Blood Pressure Control in African Americans: Results from a Pilot Study.Patient preference and adherence · 2020Trial
- Effectiveness of a smartphone app to increase parents' knowledge and empowerment in the MMR vaccination decision: A randomized controlled trial.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2017Trial
- Mobile App Rating Scale for Health Care Professionals to Assess the Quality of mHealth Apps: Questionnaire Development and Psychometric Analysis.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Article
- Beyond accessibility: co-designing mHealth to bridge the physical activity gap for people with disabilities.mHealth · 2026Article
- Validity and reliability assessment of the Persian version of the User Mobile Application Rating Scale.Journal of research in medical sciences : the official journal of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences · 2026Article
- A Mobile App to Enhance Awareness of Vaccination in Adults With Psoriasis and Atopic Dermatitis: Development and Preliminary Evaluation Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Trustworthiness of Web-Based Pharmacy Apps in Pakistan Based on the Mobile App Rating Scale: Content Analysis and Quality Evaluation.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2025Article
- Characteristics of the First Italian Older Adults Vaccinated with an Adjuvanted Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Vaccine.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Persian adaptation and validation of the user version of The Mobile Application Rating Scale (uMARS).PloS one · 2025Article
- The Mobile Applications for Low Back and Neck Pain Therapy: App Review.The archives of bone and joint surgery · 2025Review
- Translation and validation of the traditional Chinese Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS-TW) for evaluating mHealth apps.mHealth · 2025Article
- Mobile App Rating Scale (User Version) for the assessment of a community health worker medical application.mHealth · 2025Article
- Usability Testing of a Digitized Interventional Prehabilitation Tool for Health Care Professionals and Patients Before Major Surgeries: Formative and Summative Evaluation.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- A Chatbot (Juno) Prototype to Deploy a Behavioral Activation Intervention to Pregnant Women: Qualitative Evaluation Using a Multiple Case Study.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- A Digital Behavioral Activation Intervention (JuNEX) for Pregnant Women With Subclinical Depression Symptoms: Explorative Co-Design Study.JMIR human factors · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA growing body of literature affirms the usefulness of mobile technologies, including mobile applications (apps), in the primary prevention field. The quality of health apps, which today number in the thousands, is a crucial parameter, as it may affect health-related decision-making and outcomes among app end-users. The mobile application rating scale (MARS) has recently been developed to evaluate the quality of such apps, and has shown good psychometric properties. Since there is no standardised tool for assessing the apps available in Italian app stores, the present study developed and validated an Italian version of MARS in apps targeting primary prevention.
methodsThe original 23-item version of the MARS assesses mobile app quality in four objective quality dimensions (engagement, functionality, aesthetics, information) and one subjective dimension. Validation of this tool involved several steps; the universalist approach to achieving equivalence was adopted. Following two backward translations, a reconciled Italian version of MARS was produced and compared with the original scale. On the basis of sample size estimation, 48 apps from three major app stores were downloaded; the first 5 were used for piloting, while the remaining 43 were used in the main study in order to assess the psychometric properties of the scale. The apps were assessed by two raters, each working independently. The psychometric properties of the final version of the scale was assessed including the inter-rater reliability, internal consistency, convergent, divergent and concurrent validities.
resultsThe intralingual equivalence of the Italian version of the MARS was confirmed by the authors of the original scale. A total of 43 apps targeting primary prevention were tested. The MARS displayed acceptable psychometric properties. The MARS total score showed an excellent level of both inter-rater agreement (intra-class correlation coefficient of .96) and internal consistency (Cronbach's α of .90 and .91 for the two raters, respectively). Other types of validity, including convergent, divergent, discriminative, known-groups and scalability, were also established.
conclusionsThe Italian version of MARS is a valid and reliable tool for assessing the health-related primary prevention apps available in Italian app stores.
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