During the developmental stage of adolescence, profound physical, cognitive, and emotional changes occur, thus making adolescent cancer patients a population that seemingly have unique needs for support and treatment. Health-related difficulties have been effectively addressed by the use of portable and accessible technology interventions. Adolescents may benefit from mobile health (mHealth) applications that highlight the significance of their integration into medical procedures and public health, due to their innate capacity to use modern technology services. After reviewing 31 articles, it appears that well-designed mHealth practices have the potential to enhance the long-term devotion of the user to the received intervention. MHealth tools seem to incorporate widely applied theories such as Behavior Change Theory, User centered Design, Social Marketing Theory, Social Cognitive Theory, Self-Determination Theory and Narrative Transportation Theory, in order to increase patients’ engagement with the main purpose of behavioral change. The aforementioned theoretical frameworks include engaging strategies such as developmentally accepted content, rewards, customization, user feedback, time-appropriate intervention delivery, multimedia provision, ease to use and therapeutically designed games that could be implemented in mHealth interventions for adolescents with a cancer diagnosis. Both the theoretical structure and the engaging characteristics present a few limitations. These are discussed at the end of this review along with potential future research suggestions in order to improve the design procedures of mHealth services applied in adolescents with cancer, intending to optimize health-related behavior.
Adolescents with cancer seem to be a population with special needs for treatment and support as significant physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes take place at this developmental stage. Interventions via portable and easily accessible devices have proven to be effective in dealing with health-related problems. Adolescents, due to their inherent ability to operate modern technological devices, could benefit from mobile health (mHealth) applications pointing out the necessity of their integration into medical practices and public health. After reviewing 40 articles, it appears that mHealth practices have the potential to overcome some of the obstacles that arise during the treatment process, aiming at optimal symptom management, better treatment outcome and therefore improvement in adolescents’ quality of life. MHealth interventions in the field of adolescent cancer, can offer services such as recording symptoms, improving communication with health care staff, enhancing adherence to therapy, accessing valid sources of information, providing social support, and implementing training in the management of distressing symptoms. This review concludes possible limitations and future research proposals underlying the need of creating a mHealth application that incorporates the aforementioned features.
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