School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Health Sciences Libraries, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Res Nurs Health. 2021 Feb;44(1):111-128. doi: 10.1002/nur.22097. Epub 2020 Dec 20.
Chronic pain is a significant health issue that affects approximately 50 million adults in the United States. Traditional interventions are not always an effective treatment strategy for pain control. However, the wide adoption of smartphones and the rapid growth of health information technologies over the past decade have created opportunities to use mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) for pain tracking and self-management. In this PRISMA-compliant systematic review, we assessed the current U.S.-based research on pain-related mHealth apps to describe the app components and determine the efficacy of these interventions for persons with acute or chronic pain. We conducted a comprehensive search of five databases based on methodological guidelines from the Joanna Briggs Institute. We included articles reporting original data on mHealth interventions with pain intensity as a primary or secondary outcome and excluded articles that utilized multimodal interventions. Of the original 4959 articles, only five studies met the eligibility criteria. Most of the interventions included feasibility or pilot studies, and all studies were published between 2015 and 2018. Two of the five studies used visual analog scales. Only two of the studies reported statistically significant pain intensity outcomes, and considerable heterogeneity between the studies limited our ability to generalize findings or conduct a meta-analysis. Research investigating the components and efficacy of pain-related mHealth apps as interventions is an emerging field. To better understand the potential clinical benefits of mHealth apps designed to manage pain, further research is needed.
慢性疼痛是一个重大的健康问题，影响了大约 5000 万美国成年人。传统的干预措施并不总是控制疼痛的有效治疗策略。然而，智能手机的广泛采用和过去十年中健康信息技术的快速发展，为使用移动健康（mHealth）应用程序（apps）进行疼痛跟踪和自我管理创造了机会。在这项符合 PRISMA 标准的系统评价中，我们评估了美国目前基于研究的与疼痛相关的 mHealth 应用程序，以描述应用程序组件，并确定这些干预措施对急性或慢性疼痛患者的疗效。我们根据乔安娜·布里格斯研究所的方法学指南，对五个数据库进行了全面搜索。我们纳入了报告 mHealth 干预措施的原始数据的文章，这些干预措施以疼痛强度为主要或次要结果，排除了使用多模态干预措施的文章。在最初的 4959 篇文章中，只有 5 篇研究符合入选标准。大多数干预措施包括可行性或试点研究，所有研究都发表在 2015 年至 2018 年之间。五项研究中的两项使用了视觉模拟量表。只有两项研究报告了具有统计学意义的疼痛强度结果，而且研究之间存在很大的异质性，限制了我们概括研究结果或进行荟萃分析的能力。研究调查了与疼痛相关的 mHealth 应用程序作为干预措施的组成部分和疗效，这是一个新兴领域。为了更好地了解旨在管理疼痛的 mHealth 应用程序的潜在临床益处，需要进一步的研究。
