Charbonneau Deborah H, Hightower Shonee, Katz Anne, Zhang Ke, Abrams Judith, Senft Nicole, Beebe-Dimmer Jennifer L, Heath Elisabeth, Eaton Tara, Thompson Hayley S
School of Information Sciences, Wayne State University, USA.
Department of Oncology, Wayne State University/Karmanos Cancer Institute, USA.
Digit Health. 2020 Feb 11;6:2055207620905413. doi: 10.1177/2055207620905413. eCollection 2020 Jan-Dec.
The purpose of this study was to examine the state of smartphone applications for cancer intended for the general public with a focus on interactive features, content sources, and application developer affiliations. The level of health provider involvement in screening or appraising application content was also assessed.
A total of 123 apps were identified for analysis from two major mobile application marketplaces (Apple iTunes = 40; Google Play = 83). Application characteristics were collected, analyzed, and reported. These included the mobile platform, cost, application developer affiliation, date of last update, purpose of application, content sources, and interactive features.
In the study sample, 50% of the applications focused on general information for cancer (62/123). Next, this was followed by applications for breast cancer (15%, 19/123) and skin cancer (7%, 8/123). Only 10% of application descriptions (12/123) identified sources for application content. Interactive features included the ability to monitor symptoms, side effects, treatments, and chronic pain (20%, 25/123). Only 3% of the applications (4/123) stated content had been evaluated by health providers.
This study contributes an updated analysis of applications for cancer available in the digital health marketplace. The findings have implications for information quality and supportive resources for cancer care. More transparent information about content sources, organizational affiliations, and level of health provider oversight in screening application content is warranted. Recommendations for improving the quality of cancer applications are also offered.
本研究旨在调查面向普通大众的癌症相关智能手机应用程序的状况，重点关注其交互功能、内容来源及应用程序开发者所属机构。同时也评估了医疗服务提供者在筛查或评估应用程序内容方面的参与程度。
从两个主要移动应用市场（苹果应用商店 = 40 款；谷歌应用商店 = 83 款）中总共筛选出 123 款应用程序进行分析。收集、分析并报告了应用程序的特征，包括移动平台、成本、应用程序开发者所属机构、上次更新日期、应用程序目的、内容来源及交互功能。
在研究样本中，50% 的应用程序专注于癌症的一般信息（62/123）。其次是乳腺癌相关应用程序（15%，19/123）和皮肤癌相关应用程序（7%，8/123）。只有 10% 的应用程序描述（12/123）指明了应用程序内容的来源。交互功能包括监测症状、副作用、治疗方法及慢性疼痛的能力（20%，25/123）。只有 3% 的应用程序（4/123）表明其内容已由医疗服务提供者进行评估。
本研究对数字健康市场中可用的癌症应用程序进行了更新分析。研究结果对癌症护理的信息质量和支持资源具有启示意义。有必要提供关于内容来源、组织所属关系以及医疗服务提供者在筛查应用程序内容方面的监督水平的更透明信息。同时还提出了提高癌症应用程序质量的建议。
