The biopsychosocial perspective on designing mobile health apps for self-management of chronic headaches

This study identifies user-preferred features in apps for self-management of chronic headaches from the biopsychosocial perspective and examines the extent to which such features are represented in the current apps. We first conducted semi-structured interviews to identify user-preferred features that tap into the biopsychosocial domains of health. Then, we conducted a landscape analysis to review existing apps with respect to the identified features. Our findings revealed participants' preferences for features in apps to self-manage chronic headaches and were categorised based on the biopsychosocial model. Further, our landscape analysis showed that several features (e.g. physical symptom tracker) are highly present in existing apps, while most of the preferred features (e.g. journaling) are scarce. The identified features appear to align with theory-based behaviour change techniques and, therefore, have implications for health behaviour change. In addition, our findings demonstrate that most of the user-preferred biopsychosocial features are not widely present in the existing headache apps. Overall, our study highlights the importance of incorporating user-preferred features that align with the biopsychosocial needs of headache app users. By acknowledging and addressing these needs, we can broaden the existing perspectives concerning app design and evaluation and cater to the holistic health experiences of users.