Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: May 1, 2020
Date Accepted: Jun 30, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jul 1, 2020
Content Analysis and Review of Mobile Health Applications on COVID-19
ABSTRACT
Background:
Health-related or medical mobile apps have a significant role in controlling the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with the incorporation of strategic features that can help in diagnosis, symptom reporting and contact tracing of the disease.
Objective:
This study aimed to analyse and evaluate the contents as well as features of COVID-19 mobile apps. The findings are instrumental in helping healthcare professionals to identify suitable mobile apps for COVID-19 self-monitoring and education. The results of the mobile apps assessment can potentially help mobile app developers improve or modify their existing mobile app designs to achieve optimal outcomes.
Methods:
A review and comparison of mHealth apps on COVID-19 available in Google’s Play Store (Android system) and Apple’s App Store (iOS system) were performed. For the structured review of the available literature, Google and Google Scholar were used for the literature search. The inclusion criteria were apps that are related to COVID-19 with no restriction in language type. The basic features assessment criteria used for comparison were the requirement for free subscription, Internet connection, education/advisory content, size of app, ability to export data and automated data entry. The functionality of the apps was assessed according to: (1) knowledge (information on COVID-19), (2) tracing/mapping of COVID-19 cases, (3) home monitoring surveillance, (4) online consultation with a health authority, and (5) official apps run by health authorities. One point was assigned to items that were fully satisfied. No point was given for each item that was partly satisfied or did not apply. A maximum of seven and five points for the basic features and functionalities, respectively. Descriptive statistics (frequencies) were used to describe the characteristics of the apps according to the basic features and functionalities.
Results:
Of 223 COVID-19 related mobile apps, only 56 (35%) found in App Store and 54 (85.7%) in Play Store matched the inclusion criteria. In the basic features assessment, most App Store (33.3%) and Play Store (35.7%) apps scored 4 out of 7 points. Meanwhile, the outcome of the functionality assessment for most App Store apps (43.3%) was a score of 3, compared to android-based apps (35.7%), which scored 2 (out of maximum point 5). While all COVID-19 mobile apps vary in their characteristics, many apps in Apple App Store incorporate infographic mapping of COVID-19 cases while many apps in Google Play Store incorporate home-monitoring surveillance features, instead of providing focused educational content on COVID-19.
Conclusions:
Most iOS-based apps incorporate infographic mapping of COVID-19 cases while most android-based apps incorporate home-monitoring surveillance features, instead of providing focused educational content on COVID-19. From this study, it is anticipated that existing or future designs of COVID-19 mobile apps can further be improved.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.