Recent Articles
Mobile apps are fundamental tools in today’s society for practical and social endeavors. However, these technologies are often not usable for older users. Given the increased use of mobile apps by this group of users and the impact that certain services may have on their quality of life, such as mobile health, personal finance, or online administrative procedures, a clear set of guidelines for mobile app designers is needed. Existing recommendations for older adults focus on investigations with certain groups of older adults or have not been extracted from experimental results.
Increased smartphone ownership has led to the development of mobile smoking cessation programs. Although the related body of evidence, gathered through the conduct of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), has grown in quality and rigor, there is a need for longer-term data to assess associated smoking cessation durability.
There is growing interest in mobile health applications (apps); however, not all of them have been successful. The most common issue has been users’ non-adoption or abandonment of health apps because the app designs do not meet their preferences. To facilitate design-preference fit, understanding of consumers preferences for health apps is therefore necessary, which can be accomplished using a discrete choice experiment (DCE).
There is a tendency in older adults to become more physically inactive, especially in older women. Physical inactivity is exacerbated since COVID-19 epidemic. Lockdown measures and the application of information-based preventive measure of COVID-19 increase short-form video App users, and short-form video exposure including content exposure and the duration of exposure demonstrated important effects on youth’s health and health related behaviors. Despite more and more older adults started viewing short-form videos, less is known about the status of their short-form video exposure, nor the impacts of the exposure on their physical activity.
Mobile applications (apps) offer a potential mechanism for people with persistent pain to monitor pain levels conveniently within their own environment and for clinicians to remotely monitor their patient's pain. However, the quality of currently available apps and the usefulness of included features from a clinical perspective is not known.
Nonspecific low back pain (NSLBP) carries significant socioeconomic relevance and leads to substantial difficulties for those who are affected by it. The effectiveness of app-based treatments has been confirmed, and clinicians are recommended to use such interventions. As 88.8% of the German population uses smartphones, apps could support therapy. The available apps in mobile app stores are poorly regulated, and their quality can vary. Overviews of the availability and quality of mobile apps for Australia, Great Britain, and Spain have been compiled, but this has not yet been done for Germany.
Dizziness and vertigo can be caused by various factors, such as peripheral vestibular and central disorders. Although consultations with specialists are advisable when necessary, patients with severe vertigo symptoms may have limited mobility, which may interfere with hospital visits. The spread of COVID-19 has further limited the number of hospital visits for patients with dizziness; therefore, a method of medical care that enables more accurate treatment under time and geographical constraints is needed. Telemedicine has become widespread, owing to the popularity of smartphone and tablet devices in recent years, and the use of devices and systems has made it possible to provide efficient medical care. However, no previous scoping review has mapped existing studies on telemedicine for vertigo and dizziness, and no recommendations have been made regarding which devices and systems should be used for specific diseases.
