Quach Shirley, Benoit Adam, Oliveira Ana, Packham Tara L, Goldstein Roger, Brooks Dina
School of Rehabilitation Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
Respiratory Research, West Park Healthcare center, Toronto, Canada.
Digit Health. 2023 Apr 12;9:20552076231167007. doi: 10.1177/20552076231167007. eCollection 2023 Jan-Dec.
Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) may be able to support people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to develop the appropriate skills and routines for adequate self-management. Given the wide variety of publicly available mHealth apps, it is important to be aware of their characteristics to optimize their use and mitigate potential harms.
To report the characteristics and features of publicly available apps for COPD self-management.
MHealth apps designed for patients' COPD self-management were searched in the Google Play and Apple app stores. Two reviewers trialed and assessed the eligible apps using the MHealth Index and Navigation Database framework to describe the characteristics, qualities, and features of mHealth apps across five domains.
From the Google Play and Apple stores, thirteen apps were identified and eligible for further evaluation. All thirteen apps were available for Android devices, but only seven were available for Apple devices. Most apps were developed by for-profit organizations (8/13), non-profit organizations (2/13), and unknown developers (3/13). Many apps had privacy policies (9/13), but only three apps described their security systems and two mentioned compliance with local health information and data usage laws. Education was the common app feature; additional features were medication reminders, symptom tracking, journaling, and action planning. None provided clinical evidence to support their use.
Publicly available COPD apps vary in their designs, features, and overall quality. These apps lack evidence to support their clinical use and cannot be recommended at this time.
移动健康应用程序（mHealth应用）或许能够帮助慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）患者培养适当的技能和日常习惯，以实现充分的自我管理。鉴于市面上公开的mHealth应用种类繁多，了解它们的特点对于优化其使用并减轻潜在危害至关重要。
报告公开可用的用于COPD自我管理的应用程序的特点和功能。
在谷歌Play和苹果应用商店中搜索专为患者COPD自我管理设计的mHealth应用。两名评审员使用移动健康指数和导航数据库框架对符合条件的应用进行试用和评估，以描述mHealth应用在五个领域的特点、质量和功能。
从谷歌Play和苹果商店中，识别出13款应用并符合进一步评估的条件。所有13款应用都可用于安卓设备，但只有7款可用于苹果设备。大多数应用由营利性组织（8/13）、非营利组织（2/13）和未知开发者（3/13）开发。许多应用有隐私政策（9/13），但只有三款应用描述了其安全系统，两款提到符合当地健康信息和数据使用法律。教育是常见的应用功能；其他功能包括用药提醒、症状跟踪、日志记录和行动计划。没有一款应用提供临床证据来支持其使用。
公开可用的COPD应用在设计、功能和整体质量上各不相同。这些应用缺乏支持其临床使用的证据，目前无法推荐使用。
