Wright Pamela J, Burts Charlotte, Harmon Carolyn, Corbett Cynthia F
University of South Carolina, 1601 Greene Street, Columbia, SC, 29208, United States, 1 803-777-6039.
JMIR Infodemiology. 2025 Jun 12;5:e68469. doi: 10.2196/68469.
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrinopathy among women that requires self-management to improve mental and physical health outcomes and reduce risk of comorbidity. Digital technology has rapidly emerged as a valuable self-management tool for people with chronic health conditions. However, little is known about the digital technology available for and used by women with PCOS. .
The purpose of this scoping review was to identify what is known about digital technology currently available and used by women with PCOS for PCOS-specific knowledge, self-management, or social support.
The databases PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and Compendex were searched using Medical Subject Headings terms for PCOS, digital technology, health knowledge, self-management, and social support. Inclusion criteria were full-text, peer-reviewed publications of primary research from 2010 to 2025 in English about digital technology used for PCOS-specific knowledge, self-management, or social support by women aged 18 years and older with PCOS. Exclusion criteria were articles about pediatric populations and digital technology used for intervention recruitment or by health care providers to diagnose or treat patients.
In total, 34 full-text articles met the inclusion criteria. Given the scope of digital technology, eligible studies were grouped into 7 domains: mobile apps (n=14), internet-based programs (eg, Google; n=6), social media (n=6), SMS text message (n=2), machine learning (n=2), artificial intelligence (eg, ChatGPT [OpenAI]; n=3), and web-based intervention platforms (n=1). Findings highlighted participants' varied perceptions of technology usefulness based on reliability of health care information, application features, accuracy of PCOS or fertility prediction, social group engagement, user-friendly interfaces, cultural sensitivity, and accessibility.
There is potential for digital technology to transform PCOS self-management, but further design and development are needed to optimize the technologies for women with PCOS. Future research should focus on including end users during the design phase of digital technology, refining predictive models, improving app inclusivity, conducting frequent reliability testing, and enhancing user engagement and support via additional features to promote more comprehensive self-management of PCOS. .
多囊卵巢综合征（PCOS）是女性中常见的一种内分泌病，需要自我管理以改善身心健康状况并降低合并症风险。数字技术已迅速成为患有慢性健康问题的人群的一种有价值的自我管理工具。然而，对于可供PCOS女性使用以及她们实际使用的数字技术，我们了解甚少。
本范围综述的目的是确定关于目前可供PCOS女性使用以及她们实际使用的、用于PCOS特定知识、自我管理或社会支持的数字技术的已知情况。
使用医学主题词对多囊卵巢综合征、数字技术、健康知识、自我管理和社会支持，检索了数据库PubMed、Embase、CINAHL和Compendex。纳入标准为2010年至2025年期间以英文发表的、关于18岁及以上患有PCOS的女性用于PCOS特定知识、自我管理或社会支持的数字技术的全文、经同行评审的原发性研究出版物。排除标准为关于儿科人群的文章以及用于干预招募或由医疗保健提供者用于诊断或治疗患者的数字技术。
共有34篇全文文章符合纳入标准。鉴于数字技术的范围，符合条件的研究分为7个领域：移动应用程序（n = 14）、基于互联网的项目（如谷歌；n = 6）、社交媒体（n = 6）、短信（n = 2）、机器学习（n = 2）、人工智能（如ChatGPT [OpenAI]；n = 3）和基于网络的干预平台（n = 1）。研究结果强调了参与者基于医疗保健信息的可靠性、应用程序功能、PCOS或生育预测的准确性、社会群体参与度、用户友好界面、文化敏感性和可及性等方面，对技术有用性的不同看法。
数字技术有潜力改变PCOS的自我管理，但需要进一步的设计和开发，以优化针对PCOS女性的技术。未来的研究应侧重于在数字技术设计阶段纳入最终用户、完善预测模型、提高应用程序的包容性、进行频繁的可靠性测试，以及通过额外功能增强用户参与度和支持，以促进对PCOS更全面的自我管理。
