Assessing app quality through expert peer review: a case study from the gray matters study.

Area of Science:

• Digital health interventions
• Behavior change science
• Neurodegenerative disease prevention

Background:

• Health apps promoting behavior change are popular but often lack scientific rigor and clinical effectiveness.
• Ensuring apps are evidence-based and credible is crucial for reliable health outcomes.
• Alzheimer's disease risk reduction is a key area for digital health innovation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the quality of the Grey Matters app using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS).
• To assess the app's potential for delivering health education and tracking behavior change for Alzheimer's disease risk reduction.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) for quality assessment.
• Engaged 5 expert raters to evaluate the Grey Matters app.
• Focused on a cross-platform app designed for health education and behavior tracking.

Main Results:

• The Grey Matters app achieved a high mean overall MARS score of 4.45 ± 0.14.
• Expert reviews indicate promising quality and potential effectiveness of the app.

Conclusions:

• The Grey Matters app demonstrates strong potential as a credible digital tool for Alzheimer's disease risk reduction.
• Further analysis of behavior change app features is needed to enhance sustained user engagement and long-term effectiveness.