Embracing change: Navigating menopause with the help of mobile health apps in Germany

Abstract

Background

Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) have shown promise as potential solutions for mitigating the negative health impacts of menopause. However, there is a lack of standardized expert and user ratings regarding the quality of these apps, making it difficult to provide evidence-based recommendations. Therefore, this app review aimed to summarize the currently available mHealth apps for menopause in Germany. Subsequently, the identified apps were evaluated, and their quality was assessed.

Methods

A web crawler was used to search for mHealth apps related to the predefined search criteria, and information for all included apps was extracted (year of search: 2021). In the second step, healthcare providers and individuals experiencing menopause tested and evaluated the apps using the German version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS-G).

Results

The initial search yielded 6917 apps. Of these, 6879 were excluded, 32 duplicates were removed, three were available only in English, and one was designed for a specific drug treatment. The two remaining apps, Femilog and Mimeno, received low expert ratings (n = 2) for engagement, therapeutic gain, and subjective quality. In the user ratings (n = 4), both apps received average scores across all MARS-G scales.

Conclusion

This app review identified two mHealth apps for menopause in German that met the inclusion criteria. Both apps were found to have poor perceived therapeutic gain and received mixed ratings and recommendations from experts and users. Further studies on user experience and efficacy are necessary to make evidence-based recommendations regarding mHealth apps for individuals experiencing menopause.