Mobile Apps for COVID-19: A Systematic Review of Reviews

Affiliation.

  • 1 DigiHealth Institute, Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences, 89231 Neu-Ulm, Germany.
  • PMID: 38255029
  • PMCID: PMC10815093
  • DOI: 10.3390/healthcare12020139

Background: One measure national governments took to react to the acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic was mobile applications (apps). This study aims to provide a high-level overview of published reviews of mobile apps used in association with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), examine factors that contributed to the success of these apps, and provide data for further research into this topic.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review of reviews (also referred to as an umbrella review) and searched two databases, Medline and Embase, for peer-reviewed reviews of COVID-19 mobile apps that were written in English and published between January 1st 2020 and April 25th 2022.

Results: Out of the initial 17,611 studies, 24 studies were eligible for the analysis. Publication dates ranged from May 2020 to January 2022. In total, 54% ( n = 13) of the studies were published in 2021, and 33% ( n = 8) were published in 2020. Most reviews included in our review of reviews analyzed apps from the USA, the UK, and India. Apps from most of the African and Middle and South American countries were not analyzed in the reviews included in our study. Categorization resulted in four clusters (app overview, privacy and security, MARS rating, and miscellaneous).

Conclusions: Our study provides a high-level overview of 24 reviews of apps for COVID-19, identifies factors that contributed to the success of these apps, and identifies a gap in the current literature. The study provides data for further analyses and further research.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; mHealth; mobile applications; systematic review; telemedicine.

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Computer Science > Cryptography and Security

Title: (in)security of mobile apps in developing countries: a systematic literature review.

Abstract: In developing countries, several key sectors, including education, finance, agriculture, and healthcare, mainly deliver their services via mobile app technology on handheld devices. As a result, mobile app security has emerged as a paramount issue in developing countries. In this paper, we investigate the state of research on mobile app security, focusing on developing countries. More specifically, we performed a systematic literature review exploring the research directions taken by existing works, the different security concerns addressed, and the techniques used by researchers to highlight or address app security issues. Our main findings are: (1) the literature includes only a few studies on mobile app security in the context of developing countries ; (2) among the different security concerns that researchers study, vulnerability detection appears to be the leading research topic; (3) FinTech apps are revealed as the main target in the relevant literature. Overall, our work highlights that there is largely room for developing further specialized techniques addressing mobile app security in the context of developing countries.

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  1. COVID-19 Mobile Apps: A Systematic Review of the Literature

    Background: A vast amount of mobile apps have been developed during the past few months in an attempt to "flatten the curve" of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Objective: This systematic review aims to shed light into studies found in the scientific literature that have used and evaluated mobile apps for the prevention, management, treatment, or follow-up of COVID-19.

  2. COVID-19 Mobile Apps: A Systematic Review of the Literature

    Eligibility Criteria. In this context, the inclusion criteria for study selection were the following: features of the COVID-19 mobile app should be described, the study should show evidence of the implementation of the COVID-19 mobile app in real life and provide quantitative outcomes, the study should show that clinical professionals were involved in the design or validation of the mobile app ...

  3. COVID-19 Mobile Apps: A Systematic Review of the Literature

    A systematic review of the literature and mobile platforms to assess mobile applications currently utilized for COVID-19 and a quality assessment of these applications using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) for overall quality, Engagement, Functionality, Aesthetics, and Information is performed. Expand.

  4. COVID-19 Mobile Apps: A Systematic Review of the Literature

    DOI: 10.2196/23170 Corpus ID: 225483907; COVID-19 Mobile Apps: A Systematic Review of the Literature @article{Kondylakis2020COVID19MA, title={COVID-19 Mobile Apps: A Systematic Review of the Literature}, author={Haridimos Kondylakis and Dimitrios G. Katehakis and Angelina Kouroubali and Fokion Logothetidis and Andreas K Triantafyllidis and Ilias Kalamaras and Konstantinos Votis and Dimitrios ...

  5. Mobile Apps for COVID-19: A Systematic Review of Reviews

    This study provides a high-level overview of published reviews of mobile apps used in association with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), identifies factors that contributed to the success of these apps, and identifies a gap in the current literature. Background: One measure national governments took to react to the acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic was mobile ...

  6. COVID-19 Mobile Apps: A Systematic Review of the Literature

    Background: A vast amount of mobile apps have been developed during the past few months in an attempt to "flatten the curve" of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Objective: This systematic review aims to shed light into studies found in the scientific literature that have used and evaluated mobile apps for the prevention, management, treatment, or follow-up of COVID-19.

  7. Mobile Apps for COVID-19: A Systematic Review of Reviews

    Methods: We conducted a systematic review of reviews (also referred to as an umbrella review) and searched two databases, Medline and Embase, for peer-reviewed reviews of COVID-19 mobile apps that were written in English and published between January 1st 2020 and April 25th 2022. Results: Out of the initial 17,611 studies, 24 studies were ...

  8. Frontiers

    The objective of this study is to systematically review COVID-19 related mHealth apps and highlight gaps to inform the development of future mHealth initiatives in Indonesia. Methods: A systematic search strategy using a PRISMA flowchart was used to identify mHealth apps available in Google Play and Apple Play stores.

  9. Descriptive Analysis of Mobile Apps for Management of COVID-19 ...

    The main objectives of this paper are: (1) Analyze the current status of COVID-19 apps available on the main virtual stores: Google Play Store and App Store for Spain, and (2) Propose a novel ...

  10. PDF Mobile Apps for COVID 19: First Results of a Systematic Review of Reviews

    In other endemic situations, mobile applications (apps) have been used successfully. [1] Objective: This study aims to identify and review published reviews of mobile apps used in association with the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID 19). Methods: We conducted a systematic review of reviews following the PRISMA statement from 2020.[2]

  11. Mobile Apps for COVID-19: A Systematic Review of Reviews

    Europe PMC is an archive of life sciences journal literature. Mobile Apps for COVID-19: A Systematic Review of Reviews. Sign in | Create an account. https://orcid.org. Europe PMC. Menu. About. About Europe PMC; Preprints in Europe PMC; Funders; Become a funder; Governance; Roadmap ...

  12. COVID-19 Mobile Apps: A Systematic Review of the Literature

    Abstract. BackgroundA vast amount of mobile apps have been developed during the past few months in an attempt to "flatten the curve" of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases. ObjectiveThis systematic review aims to shed light into studies found in the scientific literature that have used and evaluated mobile apps for the prevention ...

  13. COVID-19 Mobile Apps: A Systematic Review of the Literature

    Europe PMC is an archive of life sciences journal literature.

  14. COVID-19 Mobile Apps: A Systematic Review of the Literature

    Background: A vast amount of mobile apps have been developed during the past few months in an attempt to "flatten the curve" of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Objective: This systematic review aims to shed light into studies found in the scientific literature that have used and evaluated mobile apps for the prevention, management, treatment, or follow-up of COVID-19.

  15. Early Literature on Adolescent Social Media Use, Substance ...

    This scoping review of early literature on adolescent substance use, social media use, and depressive symptoms in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines [].Utilizing search terms designed to capture COVID-19 pandemic, adolescence, social media use ...

  16. COVID-19 Mobile Apps: A Systematic Review of the Literature

    Background: A vast amount of mobile apps have been developed during the past few months in an attempt to "flatten the curve" of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Objective: This systematic review aims to shed light into studies found in the scientific literature that have used and evaluated mobile apps for the prevention, management ...

  17. (In)Security of Mobile Apps in Developing Countries: A Systematic

    As a result, mobile app security has emerged as a paramount issue in developing countries. In this paper, we investigate the state of research on mobile app security, focusing on developing countries. More specifically, we performed a systematic literature review exploring the research directions taken by existing works, the different security ...

  18. Contact tracing apps for the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic literature

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