Usability, acceptability, and future opportunities of mobile health (mHealth) apps for caregiver health decision making for children: a scoping review

Mobile health (mHealth) apps are capable of providing valuable information and convenient access to healthcare resources. Therefore, they can be a convenient solution to help caregivers make informed decisions for their children. Although many mHealth apps have been developed for this purpose, few studies have comprehensively investigated individual features of apps and studied their usability. This study aims to evaluate common existing and potential features used in mHealth apps to help caregivers make health decisions for children. A scoping review of literature on caregivers’ use of mHealth apps (published since 2008) was conducted across 5 databases (i.e. Embase, PubMed, CINAHL, Clinicaltrials.gov, and IEEE Xplore). Selected articles were categorized based on app purposes, target users, and mHealth agile development phases. Common features were identified and analyzed along with users’ feedback. Further, primary feature requests were summarized to inform future development. This review included 55 studies. Most apps were about maternity and infant care and specific diseases. Major users were caregivers including pregnant people. Around 20% of papers covered multiple phases in the mHealth Agile Development Lifecycle; effectiveness/clinical trial (phase III) was most commonly utilized among these phases. A total of 12 common features were identified. E-learning, personalization and customization, and health tracking features were the three most common app features. More positive feedback was found regarding features than concerns. Caregivers perceived apps as helpful and empowered them to make informed decisions. Concerns centered around: (1) technical issues; (2) inappropriate design; and (3) ambiguous terms. Requested new features included content comprehensiveness, user engagement, and usage flexibility. While concerns regarding certain features of existing mHealth apps have been raised by caregivers, this review found that mHealth apps were often useful to support caregiver decision making. These results highlight feasible strategies for developers to improve the effectiveness of mHealth apps for caregiver decision making.