Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27913373›Full record

ArticleJMIR mHealth and uHealth2016

Mobile Phone Apps to Improve Medication Adherence: A Systematic Stepwise Process to Identify High-Quality Apps.

Karla Santo, Sarah S Richtering, John Chalmers, Aravinda Thiagalingam, Clara K Chow, Julie Redfern

Open access · goldAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 122 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
122citing papers in PubMed, 8 pooled it
69.8field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

122 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 279 citations in OpenAlex.

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  7. Mobile Apps for Increasing Treatment Adherence: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019
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62 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Karla SantoThe George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9047-8865
Sarah S RichteringThe George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4270-0748
John ChalmersThe George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9931-0580
Aravinda ThiagalingamThe George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7763-7806
Clara K ChowThe George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4693-0038
Julie RedfernThe George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8707-5563
The University of Sydney · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThere are a growing number of mobile phone apps available to support people in taking their medications and to improve medication adherence. However, little is known about how these apps differ in terms of features, quality, and effectiveness.

objectiveWe aimed to systematically review the medication reminder apps available in the Australian iTunes store and Google Play to assess their features and their quality in order to identify high-quality apps.

methodsThis review was conducted in a similar manner to a systematic review by using a stepwise approach that included (1) a search strategy; (2) eligibility assessment; (3) app selection process through an initial screening of all retrieved apps and full app review of the included apps; (4) data extraction using a predefined set of features considered important or desirable in medication reminder apps; (5) analysis by classifying the apps as basic and advanced medication reminder apps and scoring and ranking them; and (6) a quality assessment by using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS), a reliable tool to assess mobile health apps.

resultsWe identified 272 medication reminder apps, of which 152 were found only in Google Play, 87 only in iTunes, and 33 in both app stores. Apps found in Google Play had more customer reviews, higher star ratings, and lower cost compared with apps in iTunes. Only 109 apps were available for free and 124 were recently updated in 2015 or 2016. Overall, the median number of features per app was 3.0 (interquartile range 4.0) and only 18 apps had ≥9 of the 17 desirable features. The most common features were flexible scheduling that was present in 56.3% (153/272) of the included apps, medication tracking history in 54.8% (149/272), snooze option in 34.9% (95/272), and visual aids in 32.4% (88/272). We classified 54.8% (149/272) of the included apps as advanced medication reminder apps and 45.2% (123/272) as basic medication reminder apps. The advanced apps had a higher number of features per app compared with the basic apps. Using the MARS instrument, we were able to identify high-quality apps that were rated as being very interesting and entertaining, highly interactive and customizable, intuitive, and easy to use and to navigate as well as having a high level of visual appeal and good-quality information.

conclusionsMany medication reminder apps are available in the app stores; however, the majority of them did not have many of the desirable features and were, therefore, considered low quality. Through a systematic stepwise process, we were able to identify high-quality apps to be tested in a future study that will provide evidence on the use of medication reminder apps to improve medication adherence.

Indexed as

medication adherencemedication compliancemobile applicationsmobile appsmobile phonesmartphone

Identifiers

PMID27913373
PMCPMC5161780
OpenAlexW2559712102

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.