A Systematic Literature Review of the Design Approach and Usability Evaluation of the Pain Management Mobile Applications

Abstract

The increasing popularity of mHealth is a promising opportunity for pain self-management. Mobile apps can be easily developed, but understanding the design and usability will result in apps that can retain more users. This research aims at identifying, analyzing, and synthesizing the current state-of-the-art of: (a) the design approach and (b) usability assessment of pain management mobile applications. A systematic literature review was conducted on 27 studies retrieved from Medline, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Scopus. The review revealed that most of the apps were for chronic pain. No app was specifically for men or for the elderly. None of the studies involved expert-based system inspection methods. Only one study used two different approaches of automated and empirical evaluation. We mapped the identified usability issues to ISO 9241-11 and ISO/IEC 25010, and aggregated the recommendations for improvement. Moreover, we also identified certain issues that are solely concerned with the patient’s behavior. We organized the issues into taxonomies of design considerations for building usable pain self-management mobile applications. As pain is prevalent among the elderly, pain management will be much needed while moving toward an aging society. However, we found that the involvement of the elderly in the development of pain management mobile apps is very minimal, which may affect the utility and usability of the apps.

Methodological Quality of Manuscripts Reporting on the Usability of Mobile Applications for Pain Assessment and Management: A Systematic Review

“…A robust existing scale, the Mobile App Rating Scale, also aims to assess the quality of the mobile apps [21]. A recent systematic review attempted to assess the quality of usability studies using a four-point scale [22] but failed to report on the process of development of the scale, or its reliability or validity, fundamental characteristics of any assessment or measurement instrument. Recently, a 15-items scale was developed to assess the methodological quality of usability studies for eHealth applications or general applications [23].…”

Mobile App Prototype in Older Adults for Postfracture Acute Pain Management: User-Centered Design Approach

“…The types of mHealth mobile apps that have been shown to have common clinical value offer at least one of the following: supporting clinical diagnosis, promoting behavior change and increasing patient adherence with treatment plans, supporting self-management of a condition, or delivering disease-related education [8]. However, systematic and scoping reviews have found that most mHealth apps were developed for chronic pain rather than for acute pain management [9][10][11][12]. A recent scoping review focused on mHealth in the context of surgery found that out of 13 studies, only 5 focused on addressing postsurgery acute pain [13].…”

“…In addition, most of the pain management mHealth apps are designed without the involvement of health care providers [12] and older adults, resulting in apps that are ill-suited for an older audience [9,22]. Thus, there is a gap in the availability of innovative evidence-based mHealth tools and solutions to support older patients in the management of their acute pain once they leave the hospital.…”

Citizen-Patient Involvement in the Development of mHealth Technology: Protocol for a Systematic Scoping Review

“…Further, they discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the included platforms. Shah and Chiew [ 32 ] analyze design and usability of mobile apps for pain management but not if and how users were involved in the development of these mobile tools. Vo et al [ 33 ] focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the use of mHealth apps, showing increased health care engagement and empowerment for patients actively using such apps.…”