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

Abstract

Background: There has been increasing use of mobile mHealth applications, including pain assessment and pain self-management apps. The usability of mHealth applications has vital importance as it affects the quality of apps. Thus, usability assessment with methodological rigor is essential to minimize errors and undesirable consequences, as well as to increase user acceptance. Objective: this study aimed to synthesize and evaluate existing studies on the assessment of the usability of pain-related apps using a newly developed scale. Methods: an electronic search was conducted in several databases, combining relevant keywords. Then titles and abstracts were screened against inclusion and exclusion criteria. The eligible studies were retrieved and independently screened for inclusion by two authors. Disagreements were resolved by discussion until consensus was reached. Results: a total of 31 articles were eligible for inclusion. Quality assessment revealed that most manuscripts did not assess usability using valid instruments or triangulation of methods of usability assessment. Most manuscripts also failed to assess the three domains of usability (effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction). Conclusions: future studies should consider existing guidelines on usability assessment design, development and assessment of pain-related apps.

Methodological Quality of User-Centered Usability Evaluation of Ambient Assisted Living Solutions: A Systematic Literature Review

“…), the results of this review suggest that there is the need to pay careful attention to quality as a considerable number of studies fail to report on pre-identified quality criteria. Nevertheless, these findings are aligned with the findings of previous reviews using the same quality scale, the CAUSS [30,78].…”

“…Although there might be reasons to develop or adapt a scale/questionnaire, its validity and reliability must be evidenced [77], which was not the case of the questionnaires used in 37% of the studies included in this review (i.e., [35,36,38,39,41,49,52,53,55,60,63,73]). The finding that SUS was the most commonly usability scale reported in the included studies (i.e., [43,45,54,56,58,59,61,[64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71]74]) is in line with a previous review on user-centered usability evaluation [78] and it suggests that this is a widely accepted instrument, usually regarded as a golden standard in terms of usability evaluation.…”

Psychological Interventions for Prenatal Anxiety in Latinas and Black Women: A Scoping Review and Recommendations

“…Examining how MUMentum and other interventions might impact pregnancy-specific anxiety is a worthy next step, as pregnancy-specific anxiety has been linked to length of gestation, low-birthweight, and adverse physical and mental health outcomes for offspring ( 60 ). Psychological intervention trials that can better tailor their content to fit specific and prevalent pregnancy-related worries stand to have particular impact on ethnic and racial minority women who are disproportionately likely to report high pregnancy-specific anxiety ( 6 , 61 , 62 ) and encounter adverse birth outcomes ( 63 ).…”

User-Centered Development of a Mobile App for Biopsychosocial Pain Assessment in Adults: Usability, Reliability, and Validity Study

“…Usability is an essential criterion in the evaluation of mHealth apps [ 17 , 18 ] and has been defined as the extent to which a product can be used by users to achieve specific goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction and in a specific context of use [ 19 ]. Nevertheless, a systematic review that synthesized and evaluated existing studies on the assessment of the usability of pain-related apps found 31 manuscripts on the usability of 32 pain apps [ 20 ]. The results of this systematic review suggested that several important methodological aspects regarding the assessment of usability are not being considered when developing pain-related apps, such as not using reliable and valid instruments to assess usability [ 20 ].…”

“…Nevertheless, a systematic review that synthesized and evaluated existing studies on the assessment of the usability of pain-related apps found 31 manuscripts on the usability of 32 pain apps [ 20 ]. The results of this systematic review suggested that several important methodological aspects regarding the assessment of usability are not being considered when developing pain-related apps, such as not using reliable and valid instruments to assess usability [ 20 ].…”