Introduction:

Stress is the harmful physical and emotional response caused by an imbalance between the perceived demands and the perceived resources and abilities of individuals to cope with those demands. The WHO urges mental health decision makers and advocates to step up commitment and action to change attitudes, actions and approaches to mental health. Mobile health apps have become increasingly popular.

Method:

A search was carried out in the main databases in health sciences (Medline, WOS and LILACS). Clinical trials were selected in which the intervention consisted in using applications on mobile phones in order to reduce stress in the working population. Articles whose original language was English or Spanish and published in the last 5 years were selected.

Results:

10 articles were selected, 70% of them obtained significant differences in the levels of stress. Headspace was the most used application. The sample had greater proportion of the female sex in 90% of the studies.

Conclusions:

Most of the reviewed studies demonstrated effectiveness in reducing the scores of the used scales. Researchs have not delved into the relationship between stress and working conditions. Without an objective reason, female healthcare workers are the most studied population.