[Apps for tinnitus? A systematic review on quality, intervention components, and behavior change techniques]

Area of Science:

• Digital health
• Tinnitus management
• Mobile health applications

Background:

• Numerous smartphone applications (apps) aim to provide tinnitus relief.
• Assessing the quality, potential, and risks of these apps is challenging for patients and healthcare providers.
• This study provides an overview of German-language tinnitus apps for research and clinical guidance.

Approach:

• Systematic search of Google Play Store and Apple App Store (November 2020-April 2021).
• Evaluation of 21 tinnitus apps by two independent raters.
• Quality assessment using the German Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS-G), analysis of intervention components, and behavior change techniques (BCTs).

Key Points:

• 1073 apps were identified, with 21 analyzed.
• Average app quality (MARS-G score: 3.37).
• Common features include sounds (18 apps) and information (9 apps); few apps incorporate behavior change techniques (24 of 93 identified BCTs).

Conclusions:

• Most tinnitus apps offer limited intervention components, such as sounds or information.
• Current apps do not fully leverage their potential for evidence-based tinnitus management.
• App evaluation indicates significant room for improvement in quality and content.