Methods and Measures Used to Evaluate Patient-Operated Mobile Health Interventions: Scoping Literature Review

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Health Informatics
• Patient Self-Management

Background:

• Mobile health (mHealth) technologies are increasingly used in patient care, yet standardized evaluation guidelines for chronic condition self-management are lacking.
• Researchers face challenges in determining which qualitative or quantitative factors to measure and how to collect reliable data for mHealth interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To document the methods and measures used to assess mHealth applications and systems for patient self-management of chronic noncommunicable diseases.
• To provide an overview of current practices in evaluating mHealth tools for chronic condition management.

Main Methods:

• A scoping review of literature published between January 1, 2015, and January 18, 2019.
• Searches were conducted in PubMed, MEDLINE, Google Scholar, and ProQuest Research Library using terms related to mHealth interventions and chronic disease self-management.
• Data extracted included study design, health conditions, intervention type (app or system), evaluation methods, and measured outcomes.

Main Results:

• Thirty-one studies met eligibility criteria, evaluating either mHealth apps (n=15) or systems (n=17).
• Commonly targeted conditions included mental health, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
• The most frequent evaluation methods were usage logs (n=21) and questionnaires (n=18), with app interaction (n=19) and usability/feasibility (n=17) being the most common measures.

Conclusions:

• Health intervention studies are increasingly leveraging mHealth technologies.
• Evaluating mHealth tools requires considering diverse data forms and platforms, with a growing need to include measures of patient self-efficacy and engagement alongside traditional metrics.
• The review offers a catalogue of methods and measures for integrating mHealth into health intervention research, emphasizing app usage logs and patient-involved approaches.