ReviewInternational journal of environmental research and public health2022
Usability and Engagement Testing of mHealth Apps in Paediatric Obesity: A Narrative Review of Current Literature.
Review in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Digital interventions for weight control to prevent obesity in adolescents: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Which criteria are important in usability evaluation of mHealth applications: an umbrella review.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2024Pooled it
- An Image-Recognition Dietary Assessment App for Adolescents With Obesity: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR formative research · 2024Trial
- An addiction-based digital weight loss intervention: A multi-centre randomized controlled trial.Pediatric obesity · 2023Trial
- Investigating the Quality of Mobile Apps for Drug-Drug Interaction Management Using the Mobile App Rating Scale and K-Means Clustering: Systematic Search of App Stores.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2025Article
- Article
- Methodological Challenges in Randomized Controlled Trials of mHealth Interventions: Cross-Sectional Survey Study and Consensus-Based Recommendations.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Usability of the BigO system in pediatric obesity treatment: A mixed-methods evaluation of clinical end-users.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2024Article
- Evaluating the Usability of mHealth Apps: An Evaluation Model Based on Task Analysis Methods and Eye Movement Data.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Barriers and facilitators to parents' engagement with and perceived impact of a childhood obesity app: A mixed-methods study.PLOS digital health · 2024Article
- Digital behavioral dietary interventions to promote a healthy diet among children and adolescents: a scoping review of technologies, design, behavioral theory, and assessed outcomes.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2024Article
- Development of an mHealth Platform for Adolescent Obesity Prevention: User-Centered Design Approach.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Developing an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data-based mobile phone app to provide adolescents with sexual reproductive health information: a human-centered design approach.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Article
- Virtual respiratory therapy delivered through a smartphone app: a mixed-methods randomised usability study.BMJ open respiratory research · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mobile health (mHealth) platforms have become increasingly popular for delivering health interventions in recent years and particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Childhood obesity treatment is an area where mHealth interventions may be useful due to the multidisciplinary nature of interventions and the need for long-term care. Many mHealth apps targeting youth exist but the evidence base underpinning the methods for assessing technical usability, user engagement and user satisfaction of such apps with target end-users or among clinical populations is unclear, including for those aimed at paediatric overweight and obesity management. This review aims to examine the current literature and provide an overview of the scientific methods employed to test usability and engagement with mHealth apps in children and adolescents with obesity. A narrative literature review was undertaken following a systematic search. Four academic databases were searched. Inclusion criteria were studies describing the usability of mHealth interventions for childhood obesity treatment. Following the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, fifty-nine articles were included for full-text review, and seven studies met the criteria for usability and engagement in a clinical paediatric population with obesity. Six apps were tested for usability and one for engagement in childhood obesity treatment. Sample sizes ranged from 6-1120 participants. The included studies reported several heterogenous measurement instruments, data collection approaches, and outcomes. Recommendations for future research include the standardization and validation of instruments to measure usability and engagement within mHealth studies in this population.
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Registered trials
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.