JMIR mHealth and uHealth

In China, the current situation of myopia among children and adolescents is very serious. Prevention and control of myopia are inhibited by the lack of medical resources and the low awareness about eye care. Nevertheless, mobile apps provide an effective means to solve these problems. Since the health app market in China is still immature, it has become particularly important to conduct a study to assess the quality of eye-care apps to facilitate the development of better eye-care service strategies.

Chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) account for major disability and premature mortality worldwide, with low- and middle-income countries being disproportionately burdened. Given the negative impact of NCDs on employee performance and work productivity, there is a rising need for stakeholders to identify effective workplace solutions that can improve employee health outcomes. As the workplace becomes more dispersed post pandemic, digital behavioral coaching offers a scalable, personalized, and cost-effective method of managing chronic disease risk factors among employees.

Physical exercise and exposure to air pollution have counteracting effects on individuals’ health outcomes. Knowledge on individuals’ real-time exercise behavior response to different pollution information sources remains inadequate.

Exercise therapy is recommended by international guidelines as a core treatment for patients with knee osteoarthritis. However, there is a significant gap between recommendations and practice in health care. Digital exercise apps are promising to help solve this undersupply.

Physical therapy has demonstrated efficacy in managing non-specific low back pain (NLBP) among patients. Nevertheless, the prevalence of NLBP poses a challenge, as the existing medical infrastructure may be insufficient to care for the large patient population, particularly in geographically remote regions. Telerehabilitation emerges as a promising method to address this concern by offering a method to deliver superior medical care to a greater number of NLBP patients.

SMS text messages through mobile phones are a common means of interpersonal communication. SMS text message surveys are gaining traction in health care and research due to their feasibility and patient acceptability. However, challenges arise in implementing SMS text message surveys, especially when targeting marginalized populations, because of barriers to accessing phones and data as well as communication difficulties. In primary care, traditional surveys (paper-based and online) often face low response rates that are particularly pronounced among disadvantaged groups due to financial limitations, language barriers, and time constraints.

Controlling saturated fat and cholesterol intake is important for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Although the use of mobile diet-tracking apps has been increasing, the reliability of nutrition apps in tracking saturated fat and cholesterol across different nations remains under-explored.

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted various containment strategies, such as work-from-home policies and reduced social contact, which significantly altered people’s sleep routines. While previous studies have highlighted the negative impacts of these restrictions on sleep, they often lack a comprehensive perspective that considers other factors, such as seasonal variations and physical activity (PA), which can also influence sleep.

The relationships between alcohol marketing exposure, alcohol use, and purchase have been widely studied. However, prospective studies examining the causal relationships in real-world settings using mobile health tools are limited.

Wearable activity trackers, including fitness bands and smartwatches, offer the potential for disease detection by monitoring physiological parameters. However, their accuracy as specific disease diagnostic tools remains uncertain.

Understanding the causes and mechanisms underlying musculoskeletal pain is crucial for developing effective treatments and improving patient outcomes. Self-report measures, such as the Pain Drawing Scale, involve individuals rating their level of pain on a scale. In this technique, individuals color the area where they experience pain, and the resulting picture is rated based on the depicted pain intensity. Analyzing pain drawings typically involves measuring the size of the pain region. There are several studies focusing on assessing the clinical utility of PDs, and now, with the introduction of digital PDs, the usability and reliability of these platforms needed validation. Comparative studies between traditional and digital PDs have shown good agreement and reliability. The evolution of PD acquisition over the last two decades mirrors the commercialization of digital technologies. However, the pen-on-paper approach seems to be more accepted by patients but there is currently no standardized method for scanning pain drawings.

Longitudinal monitoring of vital signs provides a method for identifying changes to general health in an individual, particularly in older adults. The nocturnal sleep period provides a convenient opportunity to assess vital signs. Contactless technologies that can be embedded into the bedroom environment are unintrusive and burdenless and have the potential to enable seamless monitoring of vital signs. To realize this potential, these technologies need to be evaluated against gold standard measures and in relevant populations.