Kim Ben Yb, Sharafoddini Anis, Tran Nam, Wen Emily Y, Lee Joon
Health Data Science Lab, School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2018 Mar 28;6(3):e74. doi: 10.2196/mhealth.8613.
General consumers can now easily access drug information and quickly check for potential drug-drug interactions (PDDIs) through mobile health (mHealth) apps. With aging population in Canada, more people have chronic diseases and comorbidities leading to increasing numbers of medications. The use of mHealth apps for checking PDDIs can be helpful in ensuring patient safety and empowerment.
The aim of this study was to review the characteristics and quality of publicly available mHealth apps that check for PDDIs.
Apple App Store and Google Play were searched to identify apps with PDDI functionality. The apps' general and feature characteristics were extracted. The Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) was used to assess the quality.
A total of 23 apps were included for the review-12 from Apple App Store and 11 from Google Play. Only 5 of these were paid apps, with an average price of $7.19 CAD. The mean MARS score was 3.23 out of 5 (interquartile range 1.34). The mean MARS scores for the apps from Google Play and Apple App Store were not statistically different (P=.84). The information dimension was associated with the highest score (3.63), whereas the engagement dimension resulted in the lowest score (2.75). The total number of features per app, average rating, and price were significantly associated with the total MARS score.
Some apps provided accurate and comprehensive information about potential adverse drug effects from PDDIs. Given the potentially severe consequences of incorrect drug information, there is a need for oversight to eliminate low quality and potentially harmful apps. Because managing PDDIs is complex in the absence of complete information, secondary features such as medication reminder, refill reminder, medication history tracking, and pill identification could help enhance the effectiveness of PDDI apps.
普通消费者现在可以通过移动健康（mHealth）应用程序轻松获取药物信息，并快速检查潜在的药物相互作用（PDDIs）。随着加拿大人口老龄化，越来越多的人患有慢性病和合并症，导致用药数量增加。使用mHealth应用程序检查PDDIs有助于确保患者安全并增强患者自主能力。
本研究的目的是回顾可公开获取的用于检查PDDIs的mHealth应用程序的特征和质量。
在苹果应用商店和谷歌应用商店中进行搜索，以识别具有PDDI功能的应用程序。提取应用程序的一般特征和功能特征。使用移动应用评分量表（MARS）评估质量。
共纳入23个应用程序进行审查，其中12个来自苹果应用商店，11个来自谷歌应用商店。其中只有5个是付费应用程序，平均价格为7.19加元。MARS平均得分为3.23（满分5分，四分位间距为1.34）。谷歌应用商店和苹果应用商店的应用程序的MARS平均得分在统计学上没有差异（P = 0.84）。信息维度得分最高（3.63），而参与维度得分最低（2.75）。每个应用程序的功能总数、平均评分和价格与MARS总得分显著相关。
一些应用程序提供了关于PDDIs潜在药物不良反应的准确和全面信息。鉴于错误药物信息可能产生的严重后果，需要进行监管以消除低质量和潜在有害的应用程序。由于在缺乏完整信息的情况下管理PDDIs很复杂，诸如用药提醒、续方提醒、用药史跟踪和药丸识别等辅助功能可以帮助提高PDDI应用程序的有效性。
