Program in Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore.
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore.
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2019 Oct 28;7(10):e14753. doi: 10.2196/14753.
There are many apps developed for patients with spondyloarthritis in the market, but their purpose and quality are not objectively evaluated.
The objective of this study was to identify and evaluate existing publicly available, high-quality apps that use validated measurement instruments for monitoring spondyloarthritis disease activity.
We conducted a review of apps available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store based on a combination of keywords and inclusion and exclusion criteria. Validated disease activity measurement instruments were identified. Data regarding app characteristics, including the presence of validated disease activity measurement, were extracted. The Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) was used to review the apps for user experience.
A total of 1253 apps were identified in the app stores, and 5 apps met the criteria and were further analyzed. Moreover, 2 apps (MySpA and Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis App) contained some of the validated disease activity monitoring instruments for specific spondyloarthritis subtypes. These 2 apps were also rated good on the MARS (with total mean scores ≥4 out of 5), whereas the other apps scored poorly in comparison.
There are 2 high-quality spondyloarthritis disease activity monitoring apps publicly available, but they only target 2 spondyloarthritis subtypes-ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis. There is a lack of high-quality apps that can measure disease activity for other spondyloarthritis subtypes, and no app that consolidates all validated disease activity instruments across subtypes was available.
市场上有许多针对强直性脊柱炎患者开发的应用程序，但它们的目的和质量并未得到客观评估。
本研究旨在确定和评估现有的、使用经过验证的测量工具来监测强直性脊柱炎疾病活动度的高质量、公开可用的应用程序。
我们根据关键词和纳入排除标准，对苹果应用商店和谷歌应用商店中的应用程序进行了审查。确定了经过验证的疾病活动度测量仪器。提取了有关应用程序特征的数据，包括是否存在经过验证的疾病活动度测量。使用移动应用程序评级量表（MARS）评估应用程序的用户体验。
在应用商店中总共确定了 1253 个应用程序，其中 5 个符合标准并进一步进行了分析。此外，有 2 个应用程序（MySpA 和 Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis App）包含了一些针对特定强直性脊柱炎亚型的经过验证的疾病活动监测仪器。这 2 个应用程序在 MARS 上的评分也较高（总分≥4 分），而其他应用程序的评分则较差。
目前有 2 个高质量的强直性脊柱炎疾病活动监测应用程序可供使用，但它们仅针对 2 种强直性脊柱炎亚型-强直性脊柱炎和银屑病关节炎。缺乏能够测量其他强直性脊柱炎亚型疾病活动度的高质量应用程序，也没有整合所有经过验证的疾病活动度工具的应用程序。
