Abstract
BackgroundMobile phone health apps are increasingly gaining attention in oncological care as potential tools for supporting cancer patients. Although the number of publications and health apps focusing on cancer is increasing, there are still few specifically designed for the most prevalent cancers diagnosed: breast and prostate cancers. There is a need to review the effect of these apps on breast and prostate cancer patients’ quality of life (QoL) and well-being.ObjectiveThe purposes of this study were to review the scientific literature on mobile phone apps targeting breast or prostate cancer patients and involving QoL and well-being (anxiety and depression symptoms) and analyze the clinical and technological characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of these apps, as well as patients’ user experience with them.MethodsWe conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature from The Cochrane Library, Excerpta Medica Database, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, and MEDLINE to identify studies involving apps focused on breast and/or prostate cancer patients and QoL and/or well-being published between January 1, 2000, and July 12, 2017. Only trial studies which met the inclusion criteria were selected. The systematic review was completed with a critical analysis of the apps previously identified in the health literature research that were available from the official app stores.ResultsThe systematic review of the literature yielded 3862 articles. After removal of duplicates, 3229 remained and were evaluated on the basis of title and abstract. Of these, 3211 were discarded as not meeting the inclusion criteria, and 18 records were selected for full text screening. Finally, 5 citations were included in this review, with a total of 644 patients, mean age 52.16 years. Four studies targeted breast cancer patients and 1 focused on prostate cancer patients. Four studies referred to apps that assessed QoL. Only 1 among the 5 analyzed apps was available from the official app store. In 3 studies, an app-related intervention was carried out, and 2 of them reported an improvement on QoL. The lengths of the app-related interventions varied from 4 to 12 weeks. Because 2 of the studies only tracked use of the app, no effect on QoL or well-being was found.ConclusionsDespite the existence of hundreds of studies involving cancer-focused mobile phone apps, there is a lack of rigorous trials regarding the QoL and/or well-being assessment in breast and/or prostate cancer patients. A strong and collective effort should be made by all health care providers to determine those cancer-focused apps that effectively represent useful, accurate, and reliable tools for cancer patients’ disease management.Trial RegistrationPROSPERO CRD42017073069; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.asp?ID= CRD42017073069 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6v38Clb9T)
Highlights
The number of new cancer cases diagnosed every year worldwide is rapidly rising from 14.1 million in 2012 to well over 20 million predicted by 2030 [1]
Despite the existence of hundreds of studies involving cancer-focused mobile phone apps, there is a lack of rigorous trials regarding the quality of life (QoL) and/or well-being assessment in breast and/or prostate cancer patients
A strong and collective effort should be made by all health care providers to determine those cancer-focused apps that effectively represent useful, accurate, and reliable tools for cancer patients’ disease management
Summary
The number of new cancer cases diagnosed every year worldwide is rapidly rising from 14.1 million in 2012 to well over 20 million predicted by 2030 [1]. It should be noted that around 30% to 40% of these cancer patients suffer from psychological distress (anxiety and depression symptoms commonly reported) as has been mentioned previously by a meta-analysis comprising 94 studies and 14,078 cancer patients [2] This emotional distress has been associated with poorer quality of life (QoL) [3]. Mobile phone health apps have the potential to revolutionize psychological science because they can collect behavioral data [5] and behavioral information with great ecological validity [6], facilitating high-frequency assessments and more objective data collection [7] These apps can potentially empower patients, promoting behavior changes, facilitating self-monitoring of symptoms [8], improving their educational level [9], and allowing patients the feeling of being in contact with their health care team [10]. There is a need to review the effect of these apps on breast and prostate cancer patients’ quality of life (QoL) and well-being
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