mHealth Apps for Dementia Caregivers: Systematic Examination of Mobile Apps.

Abstract

Background: Informal caregivers of persons living with dementia are increasingly using mobile health (mHealth) apps to obtain care information. mHealth apps are seen as promising tools to better support caregivers' complex and evolving information needs. Yet, little is known about the types and quality of dementia care information that these apps provide. Is this information for caregivers individually tailored; if so, how?

Objective: We aim to address the aforementioned gaps in the literature by systematically examining the types and quality of care-related information provided in publicly available apps for caregivers of persons living with dementia as well as app features used to tailor information to caregivers' information wants and situations.

Methods: In September 2023, we used a multistage process to select mobile apps for caregivers of persons living with dementia. The final sample included 35 apps. We assessed (1) types of dementia care information provided in the apps, using our 3-item Alzheimer disease and related dementias daily care strategy framework, which encompasses educational information, tangible actions, and referral information; (2) quality of apps' care information, using the 11 indicators recommended by the National Library of Medicine; and (3) types of tailoring to provide personalization, feedback, and content matching, which are common tailoring strategies described in the literature.

Results: Educational information was the most prevalent type of information provided (29/35 apps, 83%), followed by information about tangible actions (18/35, 51%) and referrals (14/35, 40%). All apps presented their objectives clearly and avoided unrealistic or emotional claims. However, few provided information to explain whether the app's content was generated or reviewed by experts (7/35, 20%) or how its content was selected (4/35, 11%). Further, 6 of the 35 (17%) apps implemented 1 type of tailoring; of them, 4 (11%) used content matching and the other 2 (6%) used personalization. No app used 2 types of tailoring; only 2 (6%) used all 3 types (the third is feedback).

Conclusions: Existing dementia care apps do not provide sufficient high-quality, tailored information for informal caregivers. Caregivers should exercise caution when they use dementia care apps for informational support. Future research should focus on designing dementia care apps that incorporate quality-assured, transparency-enhanced, evidence-based artificial intelligence-enabled mHealth solutions for caregivers.