JMIR mHealth and uHealth

The significance of mHealth apps transforms traditional healthcare delivery and enables individuals to actively manage their health. The success and effectiveness of mHealth apps heavily depend on the user experience and satisfaction. Previous studies have examined mHealth adoption through systematic literature reviews, focusing on mental health, chronic disease management, fitness, and public health responses to crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the state of research, the key trends, themes, and gaps in the user experience and satisfaction with mHealth apps remain unexplored.

The expansion of mobile health applications has created a growing need for structured and predictive tools to evaluate app quality before deployment. The Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) offers a standardized, expert-driven assessment across four key dimensions—Engagement, Functionality, Aesthetics, and Information—but its use in forecasting user satisfaction through predictive modeling remains limited.

In Lebanon, disadvantaged pregnant women show poor maternal outcomes due to limited access to antenatal care (ANC) and a strained health care system, compounded by ongoing conflicts and a significant refugee population. Despite substantial efforts to improve maternal health, the provision of maternal health services in primary health care centers (PHCs) still faces significant challenges. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions, particularly those using artificial intelligence (AI) and gamification, are proving effective in addressing gaps in maternal health services by offering scalable and accessible care.

Hypertension, one of the most common cardiovascular conditions worldwide, necessitates comprehensive management due to its association with multiple health risks. Effective control often involves lifestyle changes and continuous monitoring, yet many individuals struggle to adhere to traditional management approaches. Digital health tools are emerging as promising alternatives, offering remote monitoring and real-time support. This study focuses on evaluating a digital tool specifically designed for hypertension management, analyzing its effectiveness, and gathering user perspectives on its functionality and impact.

Missing data are inevitable in mobile health (mHealth) and ubiquitous health (uHealth) research and are often driven by distinct within- and between-person factors that influence compliance. Understanding these distinct mechanisms underlying nonresponse can inform strategies to improve compliance and strengthen the validity of inferences about health behaviors. However, current missing data handling techniques rarely disentangle these different sources of nonresponse, especially when data are missing not at random.

Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding and avoidable revisits represent significant challenges for healthcare systems, with approximately 20% of patients returning to the ED within 30 days of discharge. To reduce avoidable acute care use, many health systems have adopted ED-based transitional care interventions (TCIs). Among the most scalable and cost-effective strategies is automated text messaging outreach, which facilitates timely follow-up and reinforces discharge instructions. Despite its promise, evidence supporting this approach remains limited.

Accessible mental health support is essential for military members (MM), veterans, and public safety personnel (PSP) who are at increased risk of mental health challenges. Unique barriers to care, however, often leave these populations going untreated. Mental health treatment delivered via apps or websites (i.e., digital mental health interventions; DMHIs) offer an accessible alternative to in-person therapy.

Pregnancy and childbirth involve significant health challenges, including preventable maternal deaths, severe complications, and disparities tied to social determinants, emphasizing the need for improved maternal care. Pregnancy could benefit from a more comprehensive, continuous care model that captures dynamic changes and enhances maternal-fetal outcomes.

Chinese Americans with type 2 diabetes (T2D) face many linguistic, cultural, and social determinants of health–related barriers to accessing evidence-based diabetes interventions. Our team developed the culturally and linguistically tailored Chinese American Research and Education (CARE) program to provide evidence-based diabetes education and support to this group and demonstrated the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of the intervention on improving hemoglobin A_1c levels. However, it remains unclear whether the CARE program also improves diabetes self-efficacy and psychosocial outcomes in the same study sample.

Major depressive disorder is often a recurrent condition, with a high risk of relapse for individuals remitted from depression. Early detection of relapse is critical to improve clinical outcomes. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies offer new opportunities for real-time monitoring and prevention of relapse, if the user requirements of the target population are effectively implemented.

Anxiety and depressive disorders affect hundreds of millions globally, with substantial barriers limiting access to evidence-based treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy. Digital mental health interventions offer potential solutions to improve access to support. However, evidence of efficacy through randomized controlled trials is essential for clinical adoption.

Intensive lifestyle interventions (ILI) improve weight loss and cardiovascular risk factors, but health systems face challenges implementing them. We engaged stakeholders to cocreate and evaluate primary care implementation strategies for ILI components.