Trépanier Lindsey C M, Lamoureux Élisabeth, Bjornson Sarah E, Mackie Cayley, Alberts Nicole M, Gagnon Michelle M
Department of Psychology and Health Studies, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada.
Internet Interv. 2023 Jan 30;31:100605. doi: 10.1016/j.invent.2023.100605. eCollection 2023 Mar.
The past decade marks a surge in the development of mobile apps used to digitally track and monitor aspects of personal health, including menstruation. Despite a plethora of menstruation-related apps, pain and symptom management content available in apps has not been systematically examined. The objective of this study was to evaluate app characteristics, overall quality (i.e., engagement, functionality, design aesthetics, and information), nature and quality of pain and symptom tracking features, and availability and quality of pain-related intervention content. A scoping review of apps targeting facets of the menstrual experience was conducted by searching the Apple App Store. After removal of duplicates and screening, 119 apps targeting menstrual experiences were retained. Pain and menstrual symptoms tracking were available in 64 % of apps. Checkboxes or dichotomous (present/absent) reporting was the most common method of tracking symptoms and was available in 75 % of apps. Only a small subset ( = 13) of apps allowed for charting/graphing of pain symptoms across cycles. Fourteen percent of apps included healthcare professionals or researchers in their development and one app reported use of end-users. Overall app quality measured through the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) was found to be acceptable; however, the apps ability to impact pain and symptom management (e.g., impact on knowledge, awareness, behaviour change, etc.) was rated as low. Only 10 % of apps ( = 12) had interventions designed to manage pain. The findings suggest that despite pain and symptom management content being present in apps, this content is largely not evidence-based in nature. More research is needed to understand how pain and symptom management content can be integrated into apps to improve user experiences.
过去十年标志着用于数字跟踪和监测个人健康各个方面（包括月经）的移动应用程序的迅猛发展。尽管有大量与月经相关的应用程序，但应用程序中可用的疼痛和症状管理内容尚未得到系统研究。本研究的目的是评估应用程序的特征、整体质量（即参与度、功能、设计美学和信息）、疼痛和症状跟踪功能的性质和质量，以及与疼痛相关的干预内容的可用性和质量。通过搜索苹果应用商店，对针对月经体验各个方面的应用程序进行了范围综述。在去除重复项并进行筛选后，保留了119个针对月经体验的应用程序。64%的应用程序提供疼痛和月经症状跟踪功能。复选框或二分法（存在/不存在）报告是最常见的症状跟踪方法，75%的应用程序提供此功能。只有一小部分（n = 13）应用程序允许绘制跨周期的疼痛症状图表。14%的应用程序在其开发过程中纳入了医疗保健专业人员或研究人员，有一个应用程序报告使用了最终用户。通过移动应用程序评分量表（MARS）衡量的应用程序整体质量被认为是可以接受的；然而，应用程序对疼痛和症状管理的影响能力（例如对知识、意识、行为改变等的影响）被评为较低。只有10%的应用程序（n = 12）有旨在管理疼痛的干预措施。研究结果表明，尽管应用程序中存在疼痛和症状管理内容，但这些内容在很大程度上缺乏循证性质。需要更多的研究来了解如何将疼痛和症状管理内容整合到应用程序中以改善用户体验。
