Persian mobile health applications for COVID‑19: A use case‑based study

Since the beginning of the COVID‑19 outbreak, a significant number of mobile health apps have been created around the world and in Iran to help consequence reduction of this emerging pandemic.

This study aimed to review the characteristics of Persian Android and iOS apps related to COVID‑19 and determine their use‑cases based on a reference model.

This was a cross‑sectional descriptive study conducted in three main steps. First, a systematic search was conducted via Iranian mobile apps’ markets using the keywords related to COVID‑19 in January 2021. Then, the retrieved apps were analyzed according to their characteristics. Finally, the use‑cases of the given apps were determined and categorized based on a reference model.

Based on our inclusion criteria, 122 apps were selected and evaluated. Most of these apps (87.7%) was free. Small proportions (5%) of reviewed apps have been developed with participation of clinical expert and half of the apps mentioned the references they used. Furthermore, about half of the apps (50.8%) were provided contact information of the developers. The studied apps were classified into four use‑case major categories, including educational (98%), fulfilling a contextual need (18%), communicating, and/or sharing the information (0.83%), and health‑related management (2%).

The results showed that the Persian mobile apps for COVID‑19 are not in a satisfying situation. Furthermore, although these apps are significant in quantity but in terms of use‑cases, they are not widespread.