Journal Of Medical Internet Research Research Articles

Digital health and mobile health: a bibliometric analysis of the 100 most cited papers and their contributing authors

Aim: This study aimed to identify and analyze the top 100 most cited digital health and mobile health (m-health) publications. It could aid researchers in the identification of promising new research avenues, additionally supporting the establishment of international scientific collaboration between interdisciplinary research groups with demonstrated achievements in the area of interest. Methods: On 30th August, 2023, the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) electronic database was queried to identify the top 100 most cited digital health papers with a comprehensive search string. From the initial search, 106 papers were identified. After screening for relevance, six papers were excluded, resulting in the final list of the top 100 papers. The basic bibliographic data was directly extracted from WOSCC using its “Analyze” and “Create Citation Report” functions. The complete records of the top 100 papers were downloaded and imported into a bibliometric software called VOSviewer (version 1.6.19) to generate an author keyword map and author collaboration map. Results: The top 100 papers on digital health received a total of 49,653 citations. Over half of them (n = 55) were published during 2013–2017. Among these 100 papers, 59 were original articles, 36 were reviews, 4 were editorial materials, and 1 was a proceeding paper. All papers were written in English. The University of London and the University of California system were the most represented affiliations. The USA and the UK were the most represented countries. The Journal of Medical Internet Research was the most represented journal. Several diseases and health conditions were identified as a focus of these works, including anxiety, depression, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Conclusions: The findings underscore key areas of focus in the field and prominent contributors, providing a roadmap for future research in digital and m-health.

MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in the HIV Prevention and Care Continuum: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

In the past few years, a burgeoning interest has emerged in applying gamification to promote desired health behaviors. However, little is known about the effectiveness of such applications in the HIV prevention and care continuum among men who have sex with men (MSM). This study aims to summarize and evaluate research on the effectiveness of gamification on the HIV prevention and care continuum, including HIV-testing promotion; condomless anal sex (CAS) reduction; and uptake of and adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), and antiretroviral therapy (ART). We comprehensively searched PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Journal of Medical Internet Research and its sister journals for studies published in English and Chinese from inception to January 2024. Eligible studies were included when they used gamified interventions with an active or inactive control group and assessed at least one of the following outcomes: HIV testing; CAS; and uptake of and adherence to PrEP, PEP, and ART. During the meta-analysis, a random-effects model was applied. Two reviewers independently assessed the quality and risk of bias of each included study. The systematic review identified 26 studies, including 10 randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The results indicated that gamified digital interventions had been applied to various HIV outcomes, such as HIV testing, CAS, PrEP uptake and adherence, PEP uptake, and ART adherence. Most of the studies were conducted in the United States (n=19, 73%). The most frequently used game component was gaining points, followed by challenges. The meta-analysis showed gamification interventions could reduce the number of CAS acts at the 3-month follow-up (n=2 RCTs; incidence rate ratio 0.62, 95% CI 0.44-0.88). The meta-analysis also suggested an effective but nonstatistically significant effect of PrEP adherence at the 3-month follow-up (n=3 RCTs; risk ratio 1.16, 95% CI 0.96-1.38) and 6-month follow-up (n=4 RCTs; risk ratio 1.28, 95% CI 0.89-1.84). Only 1 pilot RCT was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a gamified app in promoting HIV testing and PrEP uptake. No RCT was conducted to evaluate the effect of the gamified digital intervention on PEP uptake and adherence, and ART initiation among MSM. Our findings suggest the short-term effect of gamified digital interventions on lowering the number of CAS acts in MSM. Further well-powered studies are still needed to evaluate the effect of the gamified digital intervention on HIV testing, PrEP uptake, PEP initiation and adherence, and ART initiation in MSM.

Technology-based interventions for tobacco smoking prevention and treatment: a 20-year bibliometric analysis (2003-2022).

Substance abuse, particularly tobacco smoking, is a significant global public health concern. Efforts have been made to reduce smoking prevalence and promote cessation, but challenges, such as nicotine addiction, marketing tactics by tobacco industry, and cultural acceptability hinder progress. Technology has emerged as a potential tool to address these challenges by providing innovative scalable interventions. The objective of the study was to analyze and map scientific literature on technology-based intervention for tobacco prevention and treatment. A bibliometric methodology was conducted. Scopus database was used to retrieve relevant research articles published between 2003 and 2022. The analysis included publication trends, key contributors, research hotspots, research themes, the most impactful articles, and emerging research topics. A total of 639 articles were found, with a slow and fluctuating growth pattern observed after 2011. The Journal of Medical Internet Research was the most prominent journal in the field. The United States was the leading country in the field, followed up by the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Research hotspots included smoking cessation, randomized controlled trials, and technology-based methods such as internet, mHealth, smartphone apps, text messages, and social media. Four primary research themes were identified: development of smartphone applications, efficacy of text messaging interventions, acceptance and effectiveness of smartphone applications, and interventions targeting young adults and students using mobile phone and social media platforms. The top 10 cited articles demonstrated effectiveness of digital interventions in promoting smoking cessation rates and reducing relapse rates. Emerging research topics included the use of virtual reality interventions, interventions for specific populations through personalized tools, and technology-based interventions in non-Western countries. The findings of the current study highlight the potential of technology to address the challenges associated with tobacco smoking. Further future research in this area is warranted to continue advancing the field and developing effective and evidence-based interventions to combat tobacco smoking.

Internet of Things in Digital Health Care Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Recent Literature

ABSTRACT The Internet of Things (IoT) is expanding rapidly and can potentially be a huge data source. This study aimed to close the knowledge gap about possible IoT applications in health care. English-language academic publications from the Web of Science (WoS) were used for the present study. Bibliometric networks were used to analyze pertinent publications to examine the connections between authors, nations, and affiliations. Papers on digital health care have been published in more than 1195 sources, among which the most popular was the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Six top institutions were from the Netherlands, making the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam the most productive institution after Australia and England. This study provides an overview of IoT-related research conducted in digital health care, helping academic researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to better understand the development of digital health care research.

In Case You Haven't Heard…

There is little evidence to show that teenagers in the U.K. who spend more time on social media have worse mental health, according to a new study by University College London (UCL) researchers, Medical Xpress reported on April 14. The study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, examined the link between social media use and mental health in more than 3,000 participants between 10 and 15 years old, from the Understanding Society household survey. The number of young people with mental health conditions has increased over the last 20 years and social media has often been cited as one of the causes. Researchers measured the number of hours spent on social media per day on a five‐point scale from “none” to “seven or more hours” at the ages of 12–13 years. They then examined data on self‐esteem and social connectedness (i.e., having strong friendships) at the ages of 13–14, before finally assessing mental health at the ages of 14–15. The findings showed that there was little evidence to suggest that more time spent on social media was associated with later mental health problems in adolescents in the UK. The researchers have called for prevention strategies and interventions to improve mental health associated with social media use while considering factors such as self‐esteem.

A bibliometric analysis of collaboration skills in education (2019-2021)

One indicator of 21st century skills is collaboration; essential skill students must acquire in century learning. This study aimed to reveal research trends over the last three years based on the start of COVID-19 by using content analysis and reviewing bibliometric results related to articles with collaboration keywords. For bibliometric mapping analysis, a total of 500 articles were accessed, and for content analysis, 31 articles were selected between 2019-2021 based on Google Scholar's database corresponding to the education field study of the research. The results showed that digital "health education collaboration" was the most searched keyword, while researchers focused on collaboration in education between 2019-2021. The most commonly used words in abstracts are teaching, creativity, ability, and community. It was evident that the latest articles primarily focused on skills. Bhone Myint Kyaw; AE Kinio is the most cited author in this field. The most cited journals are the Journal of Medical Internet Research, Journal of Surgical Education, The Journal of Technology Transfer, the most prominent journal. The content analysis results showed that "21st-century skill, problem, and implementation" has become the most studied variable in the article.

Sex Acts (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)

Sex Acts (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)

Performer Demographics (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)

Performer Demographics (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)

Conceptual Overview (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)

Conceptual Overview (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)

Fifteen years of YouTube scholarly research: knowledge structure, collaborative networks, and trending topics.

Since its inception, YouTube has been a source of entertainment and education. Everyday millions of videos are uploaded to this platform. Researchers have been using YouTube as a source of information in their research. However, there is a lack of bibliometric reports on research carried out on this platform and the pattern in the published works. This study aims at providing a bibliometric analysis on YouTube as a source of information to fill this gap. Specifically, this paper analyzes 1781 articles collected from the Scopus database spanning fifteen years. The analysis revealed that 2006-2007 were initial stage in YouTube research followed by 2008 -2017 which is the decade of rapid growth in YouTube research. The 2017 -2021 is considered the stage of consolidation and stabilization of this research topic. We also discovered that most relevant papers were published in small number of journals such as New Media and Society, Convergence, Journal of Medical Internet Research, Computers in Human Behaviour and the Physics Teacher, which proves the Bradford’s law. USA, Turkey, and UK are the countries with the highest number of publications. We also present network analysis between countries, sources, and authors. Analyzing the keywords resulted in finding the trend in research such as “video sharing” (2010-2018), “web -based learning” (2012-2014), and “COVID -19” (2020 onward). Finally, we used Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to find the conceptual clusters of research on YouTube. The first cluster is related to user -generated content. The second cluster is about health and medical issues, and the final cluster is on the topic of information quality.

Digital Health Literacy: Bibliometric Analysis.

BackgroundDigital health is growing at a rapid pace, and digital health literacy has attracted increasing attention from the academic community.ObjectiveThe purposes of this study are to conduct a systematic bibliometric analysis on the field of digital health literacy and to understand the research context and trends in this field.MethodsMethods: A total of 1955 scientific publications were collected from the Web of Science core collection. Institutional co-operation, journal co-citation, theme bursting, keyword co-occurrence, author co-operation, author co-citation, literature co-citation, and references in the field of digital health literacy were analyzed using the VOSviewer and CiteSpace knowledge mapping tools.ResultsThe results demonstrate that the United States has the highest number of publications and citations in this field. The University of California System was first in terms of institutional contributions. The Journal of Medical Internet Research led in the number of publications, citations, and co-citations. Research areas of highly cited articles in the field of digital health literacy mainly include the definition and scale of health literacy, health literacy and health outcomes, health literacy and the digital divide, and the influencing factors of health literacy.ConclusionsWe summarized research progress in the field of digital health literacy and reveal the context, trends, and trending topics of digital health literacy research through statistical analysis and network visualization. We found that digital health literacy has a significant potential to improve health outcomes, bridge the digital divide, and reduce health inequalities. Our work can serve as a fundamental reference and directional guide for future research in this field.

Application of Serious Games in Health Care: Scoping Review and Bibliometric Analysis.

BackgroundSerious games (SGs) as one kind of intervention that can improve the level of knowledge and change behavior to affect health outcomes has been increasingly applied in health care.ObjectiveAnalyze hotspots and trends of the application of SGs in health care and provide reference and direction for further research in the future.MethodsThe Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database was used for extracting the literature on SGs in health care for the period from the database established to 11 October, 2021. Scoping review and bibliometric analysis were used to deeply analyze and visualize countries, categories of studies, annual study output, cited authors, cited journals, cited articles, and keywords of healthcare field.ResultsA total of 1,322 articles were retrieved, then every articles' title and abstract were read one by one, and 795 articles were included after screening with an exponential increase in publication volume. The United States of America made the greatest contribution to global publications regarding SGs in health care. From the total, 20.8% of articles fall under the category of health care sciences services. The target groups were mainly concentrated in children (18.0%), youth (13.8%), the elderly (10.9%), adolescents (9.1%), and adults (3.4%). Baranowski T (n = 103 citations) is the most influential author, followed by Kato PM (n = 73 citations) and Desmet A (n = 58 citations). The top three cited journals were “Plos One” (n = 268 citations), “Games for Health Journal” (n = 209 citations), and “Journal of Medical Internet Research” (n = 197 citations), and the top three cited articles were “A meta-analysis of serious digital games for healthy lifestyle promotion,” “A Systematic Review of Serious Games in Training Health Care Professionals,” and “Video game training enhances cognitive control in older adults.” More and more studies focus on specific age groups, such as children, adolescents, and the elderly. The research hotspots and trends included “rehabilitation,” “medical education,” and “design.”ConclusionsThe application of SGs in health care remains important areas for future research. “Rehabilitation,” “medical education,” and “design” reflected the latest research hotpots and future trends.

MHealth Research for Weight Loss, Physical Activity, and Sedentary Behavior: Bibliometric Analysis.

BackgroundResearch into mobile health (mHealth) technologies on weight loss, physical activity, and sedentary behavior has increased substantially over the last decade; however, no research has been published showing the research trend in this field.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to provide a dynamic and longitudinal bibliometric analysis of recent trends of mHealth research for weight loss, physical activity, and sedentary behavior.MethodsA comprehensive search was conducted through Web of Science to retrieve all existing relevant documents published in English between January 1, 2010, and November 1, 2021. We developed appropriate research questions; based on the proven bibliometric approaches, a search strategy was formulated to screen the title for eligibility. Finally, we conducted bibliometric analyses to explore the growth rate of publications; publication patterns; and the most productive authors, institutions, and countries, and visualized the trends in the field using a keyword co-occurrence network.ResultsThe initial search identified 8739 articles, of which 1035 were included in the analyses. Our findings show an exponential growth trend in the number of annual publications of mHealth technology research in these fields. JMIR mHealth and uHealth (n=214, 20.67%), Journal of Medical Internet Research (n=71, 6.86%), and BMC Public Health (n=36, 3.47%) were the top 3 journals, publishing higher numbers of articles. The United States remained the leading contributor in these areas (n=405, 39.13%), followed by Australia (n=154, 14.87%) and England (n=125, 12.07%). Among the universities, the University of Sydney (n=36, 3.47%) contributed the most mHealth technology research in these areas; however, Deakin University (n=25, 2.41%) and the National University of Singapore (n=23, 2.22%) were in the second and third positions, respectively.ConclusionsAlthough the number of papers published on mobile technologies for weight loss, physical activity, and sedentary behavior was initially low, there has been an overall increase in these areas in recent years. The findings of the study indicate that mobile apps and technologies have substantial potential to reduce weight, increase physical activity, and change sedentary behavior. Indeed, this study provides a useful overview of the publication trends and valuable guidance on future research directions and perspectives in this rapidly developing field.

A 3‐D approach to personalised nutrition

A <scp>3‐D</scp> approach to personalised nutrition

Application of Telemedicine in COVID-19: A Bibliometric Analysis.

BackgroundTelemedicine as a tool that can reduce potential disease spread and fill a gap in healthcare has been increasingly applied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many studies have summarized telemedicine's technologies or the diseases' applications. However, these studies were reviewed separately. There is a lack of a comprehensive overview of the telemedicine technologies, application areas, and medical service types.ObjectiveWe aimed to investigate the research direction of telemedicine at COVID-19 and to clarify what kind of telemedicine technology is used in what diseases, and what medical services are provided by telemedicine.MethodsPublications addressing telemedicine in COVID-19 were retrieved from the PubMed database. To extract bibliographic information and do a bi-clustering analysis, we used Bicomb and gCLUTO. The co-occurrence networks of diseases, technology, and healthcare services were then constructed and shown using R-studio and the Gephi tool.ResultsWe retrieved 5,224 research papers on telemedicine at COVID-19 distributed among 1460 journals. Most articles were published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (166/5,224, 3.18%). The United States published the most articles on telemedicine. The research clusters comprised 6 clusters, which refer to mental health, mhealth, cross-infection control, and self-management of diseases. The network analysis revealed a triple relation with diseases, technologies, and health care services with 303 nodes and 5,664 edges. The entity “delivery of health care” was the node with the highest betweenness centrality at 6,787.79, followed by “remote consultation” (4,395.76) and “infection control” (3,700.50).ConclusionsThe results of this study highlight widely use of telemedicine during COVID-19. Most studies relate to the delivery of health care and mental health services. Technologies were primarily via mobile devices to deliver health care, remote consultation, control infection, and contact tracing. The study assists researchers in comprehending the knowledge structure in this sector, enabling them to discover critical topics and choose the best match for their survey work.

The Communication in Social Media About COVID-19 Vaccine: Mapping and Bibliometrics Analysis

COVID-19 emerged at the end of 2019 in China, and has spread to all corners of the world. So many parties are creating vaccines to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Simultaneously in today's digital world, there are many studies discussing the COVID-19 vaccine spread in terms of communication on social media which is the most popular social network today. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explain global research trends related to the use of social media as a means of spreading COVID-19 vaccines, both positive and negative, from 2020 to 2021. This study uses bibliometric analysis and also uses VOSViewer to map scientific publications. This study also uses the Word frequency feature in NVIVO 12 plus. Findings in this study that the publication of scientific research on communication in social media about the COVID-19 vaccine has increased in the last two years. The mapping covers all countries whose publications are indexed by Scopus, the United States has the most significant contribution to research publications. Journal of Medical Internet Research is the journal that publishes the most research. The University of Pennsylvania is the institution that has the highest contribution. Topics that have good opportunities for future research are interpersonal, vaccination, vaccines, immunology, and COVID-19 vaccines. The narrative of global scientific research publications related to communication in social media about the COVID-19 vaccine is COVID-19, vaccine, and social media.

Research on Digital Technology Use in Cardiology: Bibliometric Analysis.

BackgroundDigital technology uses in cardiology have become a popular research focus in recent years. However, there has been no published bibliometric report that analyzed the corresponding academic literature in order to derive key publishing trends and characteristics of this scientific area.ObjectiveWe used a bibliometric approach to identify and analyze the academic literature on digital technology uses in cardiology, and to unveil popular research topics, key authors, institutions, countries, and journals. We further captured the cardiovascular conditions and diagnostic tools most commonly investigated within this field.MethodsThe Web of Science electronic database was queried to identify relevant papers on digital technology uses in cardiology. Publication and citation data were acquired directly from the database. Complete bibliographic data were exported to VOSviewer, a dedicated bibliometric software package, and related to the semantic content of titles, abstracts, and keywords. A term map was constructed for findings visualization.ResultsThe analysis was based on data from 12,529 papers. Of the top 5 most productive institutions, 4 were based in the United States. The United States was the most productive country (4224/12,529, 33.7%), followed by United Kingdom (1136/12,529, 9.1%), Germany (1067/12,529, 8.5%), China (682/12,529, 5.4%), and Italy (622/12,529, 5.0%). Cardiovascular diseases that had been frequently investigated included hypertension (152/12,529, 1.2%), atrial fibrillation (122/12,529, 1.0%), atherosclerosis (116/12,529, 0.9%), heart failure (106/12,529, 0.8%), and arterial stiffness (80/12,529, 0.6%). Recurring modalities were electrocardiography (170/12,529, 1.4%), angiography (127/12,529, 1.0%), echocardiography (127/12,529, 1.0%), digital subtraction angiography (111/12,529, 0.9%), and photoplethysmography (80/12,529, 0.6%). For a literature subset on smartphone apps and wearable devices, the Journal of Medical Internet Research (20/632, 3.2%) and other JMIR portfolio journals (51/632, 8.0%) were the major publishing venues.ConclusionsDigital technology uses in cardiology target physicians, patients, and the general public. Their functions range from assisting diagnosis, recording cardiovascular parameters, and patient education, to teaching laypersons about cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This field already has had a great impact in health care, and we anticipate continued growth.

Global Scientific Research Landscape on Medical Informatics From 2011 to 2020: Bibliometric Analysis.

BackgroundWith the emerging information and communication technology, the field of medical informatics has dramatically evolved in health care and medicine. Thus, it is crucial to explore the global scientific research landscape on medical informatics.ObjectiveThis study aims to present a visual form to clarify the overall scientific research trends of medical informatics in the past decade.MethodsA bibliometric analysis of data retrieved and extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database was performed to analyze global scientific research trends on medical informatics, including publication year, journals, authors, institutions, countries/regions, references, and keywords, from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2020.ResultsThe data set recorded 34,742 articles related to medical informatics from WoSCC between 2011 and 2020. The annual global publications increased by 193.86% from 1987 in 2011 to 5839 in 2020. Journal of Medical Internet Research (3600 publications and 63,932 citations) was the most productive and most highly cited journal in the field of medical informatics. David W Bates (99 publications), Harvard University (1161 publications), and the United States (12,927 publications) were the most productive author, institution, and country, respectively. The co-occurrence cluster analysis of high-frequency author keywords formed 4 clusters: (1) artificial intelligence in health care and medicine; (2) mobile health; (3) implementation and evaluation of electronic health records; (4) medical informatics technology application in public health. COVID-19, which ranked third in 2020, was the emerging theme of medical informatics.ConclusionsWe summarize the recent advances in medical informatics in the past decade and shed light on their publication trends, influential journals, global collaboration patterns, basic knowledge, research hotspots, and theme evolution through bibliometric analysis and visualization maps. These findings will accurately and quickly grasp the research trends and provide valuable guidance for future medical informatics research.

Medical and Health-Related Misinformation on Social Media: Bibliometric Study of the Scientific Literature

BackgroundSocial media has been extensively used for the communication of health-related information and consecutively for the potential spread of medical misinformation. Conventional systematic reviews have been published on this topic to identify original articles and to summarize their methodological approaches and themes. A bibliometric study could complement their findings, for instance, by evaluating the geographical distribution of the publications and determining if they were well cited and disseminated in high-impact journals.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of the current literature to discover the prevalent trends and topics related to medical misinformation on social media.MethodsThe Web of Science Core Collection electronic database was accessed to identify relevant papers with the following search string: ALL=(misinformati* OR “wrong informati*” OR disinformati* OR “misleading informati*” OR “fake news*”) AND ALL=(medic* OR illness* OR disease* OR health* OR pharma* OR drug* OR therap*) AND ALL=(“social media*” OR Facebook* OR Twitter* OR Instagram* OR YouTube* OR Weibo* OR Whatsapp* OR Reddit* OR TikTok* OR WeChat*). Full records were exported to a bibliometric software, VOSviewer, to link bibliographic information with citation data. Term and keyword maps were created to illustrate recurring terms and keywords.ResultsBased on an analysis of 529 papers on medical and health-related misinformation on social media, we found that the most popularly investigated social media platforms were Twitter (n=90), YouTube (n=67), and Facebook (n=57). Articles targeting these 3 platforms had higher citations per paper (>13.7) than articles covering other social media platforms (Instagram, Weibo, WhatsApp, Reddit, and WeChat; citations per paper <8.7). Moreover, social media platform–specific papers accounted for 44.1% (233/529) of all identified publications. Investigations on these platforms had different foci. Twitter-based research explored cyberchondria and hypochondriasis, YouTube-based research explored tobacco smoking, and Facebook-based research studied vaccine hesitancy related to autism. COVID-19 was a common topic investigated across all platforms. Overall, the United States contributed to half of all identified papers, and 80% of the top 10 most productive institutions were based in this country. The identified papers were mostly published in journals of the categories public environmental and occupational health, communication, health care sciences services, medical informatics, and medicine general internal, with the top journal being the Journal of Medical Internet Research.ConclusionsThere is a significant platform-specific topic preference for social media investigations on medical misinformation. With a large population of internet users from China, it may be reasonably expected that Weibo, WeChat, and TikTok (and its Chinese version Douyin) would be more investigated in future studies. Currently, these platforms present research gaps that leave their usage and information dissemination warranting further evaluation. Future studies should also include social platforms targeting non-English users to provide a wider global perspective.

Patient-Facing Mobile Apps to Support Physiotherapy Care: Protocol for a Systematic Review of Apps Within App Stores.

BackgroundCare delivered by physiotherapists aims to facilitate engagement in positive health behaviors by patients (eg, adherence to exercise). However, research suggests that behavioral interventions are frequently omitted from care. Hence, better understanding of strategies that can be used by physiotherapists to support patients to engage in positive behaviors is important and likely to optimize outcomes. Digital health interventions delivered via mobile apps are garnering attention for their ability to support behavior change. They have potential to incorporate numerous behavior change techniques (BCTs) to support goals of physiotherapy care, including but not limited to self-monitoring, goal setting, and prompts/alerts. Despite their potential to support physiotherapy care, much is still unknown about what apps are available to consumers, the BCTs they use, their quality, and their potential to change behaviors.ObjectiveThe primary aim of this study is to systematically review the mobile apps available in app stores that are intended for use by patients to support physiotherapy care, including the BCTs within these apps. The secondary aims are to evaluate the quality and behavior change potential of these apps.MethodsA systematic review of mobile apps in app stores will be undertaken. This will be guided by recommendations for systematic reviews in line with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement but adapted to suit our app store search, consistent with similar systematic reviews of apps published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Apple Store and Google Play will be searched with a two-step search strategy, using terms relevant to physiotherapy, physiotherapists, and common physiotherapy care. Key eligibility criteria will include apps that are intended for use by patients and are self-contained or stand-alone without the need of additional wearable devices or other add-ons. Included apps will be coded for BCTs and rated for quality using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) and for potential to change behavior using the App Behavior Change Scale (ABACUS).ResultsApp store search and screening are expected to be completed in 2021. Data extraction and quality appraisal are expected to commence by November 2021. The study results are expected to be published in a subsequent paper in 2022.ConclusionsKnowledge gained from this review will support clinical practice and inform research by providing a greater understanding of the quality of currently available mobile apps and their potential to support patient behavior change goals of physiotherapy care.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)PRR1-10.2196/29047