Investigating the Quality of Persian Mobile Applications Related to Patients with MS

As the use of health-related applications increased, researchers sought to analyze them from different angles such as function, technology, benefits, risks, etc., so that other researchers and the target community could be aware of the current status of these applications. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of Persian mobile applications designed for MS disease based on the Mobile Application Ranking Scale (MARS).

This study was conducted on Persian mobile applications related to MS in January 2020. To identify these applications, a combined search of keywords related to "MS" and "mobile application" was done. Considering the popularity of the Android platform for mobile phones in Iran, researchers searched for the mentioned keywords in the "Cafebazaar" application. The Mobile Application Ranking Scale was adopted to evaluate the quality of applications.

Ten applications were included in this study. The results showed that each application had a combination of goals, such as prevention (n=6), diagnosis (n=7), initial treatment (n=10), and disease control (n=1) to increase awareness of the disease. One of the goals of all applications was to inform the users about the initial treatment. The initial installation version of all ten apps was free, but eight of them needed in-app purchases to upgrade information. According to the MARS scores, none of the apps were suitable for helping patients.

The results showed that most Persian application designers have paid attention to the interactive aspects of applications and have neglected to provide scientific content. Developers of these applications are advised to evaluate them in the first place and then make them available to the public so that low-quality applications would not be available to patients.