Cognitive Behavioral Mobile Applications: Clinical Studies, Marketplace Overview, and Research Agenda

Torous, John; Levin, Michael E.; Ahern, David K.; Oser, Megan

doi:10.1016/j.cbpra.2016.05.007

Cited by 68 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Furthermore, searches for specific app names might bring up numerous other apps because of app store ranking algorithms before the desired apps were to appear. Not surprisingly, other researchers have noted some of these same difficulties [3,11,35]. Thus, researchers who work with app stores should prepare for these kinds of challenges and use alternate methods, such as Internet searches, to assist in finding missing details or supplemental information.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These reviews use different approaches, such as (1) exploring commercial app stores [6,10,12], (2) reviewing existing scientific literature [2,5], and (3) a combination of app store and scientific literature reviews [3,4,7-9,11]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By reviewing scientific literature, researchers can explore the common principles or treatment strategies used in apps and the efficacy of these apps at achieving their clinical targets [5,7,8,11]. By synthesizing controlled trials of health apps, researchers compile evidence exploring their benefits in behavior change, disease management, and symptom reduction [2,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Health App Use Among Individuals With Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety: A Survey Study With Thematic Coding

2017

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BackgroundResearchers have largely turned to commercial app stores, randomized trials, and systematic reviews to make sense of the mHealth landscape. Few studies have approached understanding by collecting information from target end users. The end user perspective is critical as end user interest in and use of mHealth technologies will ultimately drive the efficacy of these tools.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to obtain information from end users of mHealth technologies to better understand the physical and mental health apps people use and for what purposes.MethodsPeople with depressive or anxious symptoms (N=176) seeking entry into a trial of mental health and well-being apps for Android devices completed online questionnaires assessing depression and anxiety (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7), past and current mental health treatment-seeking behavior, overall mobile device use, and use of mobile health apps. Participants reported the physical health and mental health apps on their devices and their reasons for using them. Data were extracted from the participant self-reports and apps and app purposes were coded in order to categorize them.ResultsParticipants were largely white, middle-aged females from the Midwest region of the United States recruited via a health care organization and Web-based advertising (135 female, 41 male, mean age 38.64 years, age range 19-75 years.) Over three-quarters (137/176, 77.8%) of participants indicated having a health app on their device. The top 3 kinds of apps were exercise, fitness, and pedometers or heart rate monitoring apps (93/176, 52.8%); diet, food, or calorie counting apps (65/177, 36.9%); and mental health/wellness apps (46/177, 26.1%). The mean number of mobile physical and mental health apps on a participant’s phone was 2.15 (SD 3.195). Of 176 participants, 107 (60.8%) specifically reported the top 5 health apps that they used and their purposes. Across the 107 participants, a total of 285 apps were reported, with 139 being unique apps. The majority of these apps were free (129/139, 92.8%). Almost two-thirds of participants (67/107, 62.6%) reported using health apps at least on a daily basis.ConclusionsAmong those seeking support for their well-being via physical and mental health apps, people are using a variety of health apps. These people use health apps on a daily basis, especially free apps. The most common reason for using a health app is to track some health-related data; for mental health apps specifically, training or habit building was the most popular reason. Understanding the end user perspective is important because it allows us to build on the foundation of previously established mHealth research and may help guide future work in mHealth.Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT02176226; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02176226 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6rGc1MGyM)

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Health App Use Among Individuals With Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety: A Survey Study With Thematic Coding

2017

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“…From apps that collect smartphone sensor data that researcher can use to predict relapse in schizophrenia6 to others used to monitor heart conditions in real time,7 the potential of apps across healthcare is vast. However, the majority of apps featured in the research literature are often not available to the public 8. Given that many users find apps by searching the top returned results in the app marketplaces, it is important to understand the functionality of these apps that the public is presented with.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the quality, effectiveness and attributes of top-rated smartphone health apps

Wisniewski

Liu

Henson

et al. 2019

Evid Based Mental Health

Self Cite

108

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ObjectiveThis study aimed to understand the attributes of popular apps for mental health and comorbid medical conditions, and how these qualities relate to consumer ratings, app quality and classification by the WHO health app classification framework.MethodsWe selected the 10 apps from the Apple iTunes store and the US Android Google Play store on 20 July 2018 from six disease states: depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, addiction, diabetes and hypertension. Each app was downloaded by two authors who provided information on the apps’ attributes, functionality, interventions, popularity, scientific backing and WHO app classification rating.ResultsA total of 120 apps were examined. Although none of these apps had Food and Drug Administration marketing approval, nearly 50% made claims that appeared medical. Most apps offered a similar type of services with 87.5% assigned WHO classification 1.4.2 ‘self-monitoring of health or diagnostic data by a client’ or 1.6.1 ‘client look-up of health information’. The ‘last updated’ attribute was highly correlated with a quality rating of the app although no apps features (eg, uses Global Positioning System, reminders and so on) were.ConclusionDue to the heterogeneity of the apps, we were unable to define a core set of features that would accurately assess app quality. The number of apps making unsupported claims combined with the number of apps offering questionable content warrants a cautious approach by both patients and clinicians in selecting safe and effective ones.Clinical Implications‘Days since last updated’ offers a useful and easy clinical screening test for health apps, regardless of the condition being examined.

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“…Some of these apps may even be harmful (e.g., Gajecki et al, 2014; Anthes, 2016). Although supporting evidence is building (e.g., Dagöö et al, 2004; Birney et al, 2016), much of the research has been limited to pilot studies, often conducted by the apps' own developers rather than by independent researchers, and randomized clinical trials tend to be statistically underpowered and unreplicated (Anthes, 2016; Torous et al, 2017). And, with respect to the very few theory-driven and evidenced-based therapist-free computerized treatments, such as the cognitive bias modification and cognitive training procedures, their effectiveness remains extremely limited, suggesting that they are not yet ready for global dissemination (Cristea et al, 2015; Heeren et al, 2015, 2016; Firth et al, 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Commentary: The Impact of Digital Technology on Psychological Treatments and Their Dissemination

Heeren

2018

Front. Psychol.

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Cognitive Behavioral Mobile Applications: Clinical Studies, Marketplace Overview, and Research Agenda

Cited by 68 publications

References 35 publications

Health App Use Among Individuals With Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety: A Survey Study With Thematic Coding

Health App Use Among Individuals With Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety: A Survey Study With Thematic Coding

Understanding the quality, effectiveness and attributes of top-rated smartphone health apps

Commentary: The Impact of Digital Technology on Psychological Treatments and Their Dissemination

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