Objective:

To review the evidence of the mobile apps in collection patient-reported outcomes and their impact on health outcomes.

Method:

A review was conducted of the literature on apps aimed at collecting patient-reported outcomes. Selected articles were required to consider the apps' impact on patients' health outcomes. The search was carried out during April 2021 in Pubmed and Embase using the search terms “app”, “mobile applications”, “patient-reported outcomes”, “outcome assessment, health care”, and “quality of life”, To be included articles had to be written in English or Spanish and they were required to dwell on apps used by patients, family members and/or caregivers that measured at least one health outcome. No time restrictions were applied.

Results:

Of the 26 articles reviewed, 19 (73.1%) were clinical trials, 4 (15.4%) were quasi-experimental studies, and 3 (11.5%) were observational studies. A pharmacy department was involved in 4 studies (15.4%), and 3 (11.5%), were carried out in Spain. The sample size ranged from 14 to 411. Depending on the study population, the most frequent studies included cancer patients (42.3%) and patients with cardiovascular diseases (26.9%). Most of the studies focused on measuring the impact of the app on the patients' quality of life (50.0%), control of clinical parameters (46.2%), adherence (38.5%), and management of symptoms and/or reduction of complications (26.9%). Overall efficacy in terms of the percentage of studies where apps were found to result in a significant improvement was 73.1%. The most heavily impacted patient-reported outcomes were adherence, health-related quality of life and satisfaction.

Conclusions:

There is emerging evidence that apps have a positive impact on patients' health outcomes. These tools have shown to lead to an improvement in the management of different conditions, with results showing a reduction in complications rates and in the consumption of resources as well as better adherence to medication and enhanced patient quality of life.

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