TY  - JOUR
AU  - Guo, Yuqi
AU  - Yang, Fan
AU  - Hu, Fei
AU  - Li, Wei
AU  - Ruggiano, Nicole
AU  - Lee, Hee Yun
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/1/24
TI  - Existing Mobile Phone Apps for Self-Care Management of People With Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias: Systematic Analysis
JO  - JMIR Aging
SP  - e15290
VL  - 3
IS  - 1
KW  - alzheimer disease
KW  - dementia
KW  - self-care
KW  - mobile phone apps
AB  - Background: Alzheimer disease and related dementias (AD/RD) are progressive neurocognitive disorders that currently affect approximately 50 million people worldwide. Mobile phone apps have been well-integrated into daily lives and can be used to deliver and promote health care. There is an increase in the use of technology to provide care and support to AD/RD patients and their families. Objective: This study aimed to review apps designed for AD/RD patients and analyze the benefits of, and challenges to, such technological solutions. Methods: A systematic approach was applied to review the availability, content, features, and quality of mobile phone apps to support self-care among AD/RD patients. Results: The initial search for this review was conducted in January 2019, and the screening and analysis of the included apps were completed in May 2019. A total of 14 apps were included from an initial search of 245 apps. The top 3 features were alert (9/14, 64%), self-care tips (6/14, 42%), and social networking capacity (5/14, 35%). On average, the readability of the apps was a tenth-grade reading level (SD 3.06). The overall quality was 3.71 out of 5 (SD 1.37). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that currently available apps for AD/RD patients may not meet complex needs and may be challenging to use, given the possible impaired communication ability associated with AD/RD. Therefore, high-quality apps need to be developed and rigorously evaluated for feasibility and efficacy. 
SN  - 2561-7605
UR  - http://aging.jmir.org/2020/1/e15290/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/15290
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32012045
DO  - 10.2196/15290
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/15290
ER  -