Abstract

Objective

The study sought to review the different assessment items that have been used within existing health app evaluation frameworks aimed at individual, clinician, or organizational users, and to analyze the scoring and evaluation methods used in these frameworks.

Materials and Methods

We searched multiple bibliographic databases and conducted backward searches of reference lists, using search terms that were synonyms of “health apps,” “evaluation,” and “frameworks.” The review covered publications from 2011 to April 2020. Studies on health app evaluation frameworks and studies that elaborated on the scaling and scoring mechanisms applied in such frameworks were included.

Results

Ten common domains were identified across general health app evaluation frameworks. A list of 430 assessment criteria was compiled across 97 identified studies. The most frequently used scaling mechanism was a 5-point Likert scale. Most studies have adopted summary statistics to generate the total scoring of each app, and the most popular approach taken was the calculation of mean or average scores. Other frameworks did not use any scaling or scoring mechanism and adopted criteria-based, pictorial, or descriptive approaches, or “threshold” filter.

Discussion

There is wide variance in the approaches to evaluating health apps within published frameworks, and this variance leads to ongoing uncertainty in how to evaluate health apps.

Conclusions

A new evaluation framework is needed that can integrate the full range of evaluative criteria within one structure, and provide summative guidance on health app rating, to support individual app users, clinicians, and health organizations in choosing or recommending the best health app.

中文翻译：

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范围审查：移动健康应用程序评估框架的开发和评估以向消费者推荐

摘要

客观的

该研究旨在审查现有健康应用程序评估框架中针对个人、临床医生或组织用户使用的不同评估项目，并分析这些框架中使用的评分和评估方法。

材料和方法

我们搜索了多个书目数据库，并使用“健康应用”、“评估”和“框架”同义词的搜索词对参考列表进行了反向搜索。该审查涵盖了 2011 年至 2020 年 4 月的出版物。包括对健康应用程序评估框架的研究以及详细阐述在此类框架中应用的缩放和评分机制的研究。

结果

在一般健康应用程序评估框架中确定了十个常见领域。在 97 项确定的研究中编制了 430 项评估标准清单。最常用的量表机制是李克特 5 点量表。大多数研究采用汇总统计来生成每个应用程序的总分，其中最受欢迎的方法是计算平均分或平均分。其他框架没有使用任何缩放或评分机制，而是采用了基于标准的、图示的或描述性的方法，或“阈值”过滤器。

讨论

在已发布的框架内评估健康应用程序的方法存在很大差异，这种差异导致如何评估健康应用程序的持续不确定性。

结论

需要一个新的评估框架，将全方位的评估标准整合到一个结构中，并为健康应用评级提供总结性指导，以支持个人应用用户、临床医生和健康组织选择或推荐最佳健康应用。