@Article{info:doi/10.2196/mhealth.8866,
author="Bl{\'a}zquez Mart{\'i}n, David
and De La Torre, Isabel
and Garcia-Zapirain, Begonya
and Lopez-Coronado, Miguel
and Rodrigues, Joel",
title="Managing and Controlling Stress Using mHealth: Systematic Search in App Stores",
journal="JMIR Mhealth Uhealth",
year="2018",
month="May",
day="09",
volume="6",
number="5",
pages="e111",
keywords="apps; control; management; mHealth; stress",
abstract="Background: Traditional stress management techniques have been proven insufficient to tackle the needs of today's population. Computational-based techniques and now mobile health (mHealth) apps are showing promise to enable ease of use and access while educating end users on self-management. Objective: The main aim of this paper was to put forward a systematic review of mHealth apps for stress management. Methods: The scenario chosen for this study consists of a sample of the most relevant mHealth apps found on the British and Spanish online stores of the two main mobile operating systems: iOS and Android. The apps have been categorized and scored base on their impact, presence, number of results, language, and operating system. Results: A total of 433 different mobile apps for stress management was analyzed. Of these apps, 21.7{\%} (94/433) belonged to the ``relaxing music'' category, 10.9{\%} (47/433) were in the ``draw and paint'' category, 1.2{\%} (5/433) belonged to the ``heart rate control'' category, and 1.2{\%} (5/433) fell under ``integral methodology.'' Only 2.0{\%} (8/433) of the apps qualified as high or medium interest while 98.0{\%} were low interest. Furthermore, 2.0{\%} (8/433) of the apps were available on both iOS and Android, and 98{\%} of apps ran on only one platform (iOS or Android). Conclusions: There are many low-value apps available at the moment, but the analysis shows that they are adding new functionalities and becoming fully integrated self-management systems with extra capabilities such as professional assistance services and online support communities. ",
issn="2291-5222",
doi="10.2196/mhealth.8866",
url="http://mhealth.jmir.org/2018/5/e111/",
url="https://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.8866",
url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29743152"
}