Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Mar 28;6(3):e74.
doi: 10.2196/mhealth.8613.

Consumer Mobile Apps for Potential Drug-Drug Interaction Check: Systematic Review and Content Analysis Using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS)

Affiliations
Review

Consumer Mobile Apps for Potential Drug-Drug Interaction Check: Systematic Review and Content Analysis Using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS)

Ben Yb Kim et al. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. .

Abstract

Background: General consumers can now easily access drug information and quickly check for potential drug-drug interactions (PDDIs) through mobile health (mHealth) apps. With aging population in Canada, more people have chronic diseases and comorbidities leading to increasing numbers of medications. The use of mHealth apps for checking PDDIs can be helpful in ensuring patient safety and empowerment.

Objective: The aim of this study was to review the characteristics and quality of publicly available mHealth apps that check for PDDIs.

Methods: Apple App Store and Google Play were searched to identify apps with PDDI functionality. The apps' general and feature characteristics were extracted. The Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) was used to assess the quality.

Results: A total of 23 apps were included for the review-12 from Apple App Store and 11 from Google Play. Only 5 of these were paid apps, with an average price of $7.19 CAD. The mean MARS score was 3.23 out of 5 (interquartile range 1.34). The mean MARS scores for the apps from Google Play and Apple App Store were not statistically different (P=.84). The information dimension was associated with the highest score (3.63), whereas the engagement dimension resulted in the lowest score (2.75). The total number of features per app, average rating, and price were significantly associated with the total MARS score.

Conclusions: Some apps provided accurate and comprehensive information about potential adverse drug effects from PDDIs. Given the potentially severe consequences of incorrect drug information, there is a need for oversight to eliminate low quality and potentially harmful apps. Because managing PDDIs is complex in the absence of complete information, secondary features such as medication reminder, refill reminder, medication history tracking, and pill identification could help enhance the effectiveness of PDDI apps.

Keywords: consumer health informatics; consumer health information; drug interactions; mobile applications; smartphone; telemedicine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
App selection process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The number of apps that contain the secondary features listed on the x-axis.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) dimension scores. Each point represents the score for an individual app. The box plot shows the median, first, and third quartiles and minimum and maximum scores.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Taylor Jr R, V Pergolizzi Jr J, Puenpatom RA, Summers KH. Economic implications of potential drug-drug interactions in chronic pain patients. Expert Rev Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res. 2013 Dec;13(6):725–34. doi: 10.1586/14737167.2013.851006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Scheife RT, Hines LE, Boyce RD, Chung SP, Momper JD, Sommer CD, Abernethy DR, Horn JR, Sklar SJ, Wong SK, Jones G, Brown ML, Grizzle AJ, Comes S, Wilkins TL, Borst C, Wittie MA, Malone DC. Consensus recommendations for systematic evaluation of drug-drug interaction evidence for clinical decision support. Drug Saf. 2015 Feb;38(2):197–206. doi: 10.1007/s40264-014-0262-8. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/25556085 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Miranda V, Fede A, Nobuo M, Ayres V, Giglio A, Miranda M, Riechelmann RP. Adverse drug reactions and drug interactions as causes of hospital admission in oncology. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2011 Sep;42(3):342–53. doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2010.11.014.S0885-3924(11)00058-3 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Yee JL, Hasson NK, Schreiber DH. Drug-related emergency department visits in an elderly veteran population. Ann Pharmacother. 2005 Dec;39(12):1990–5. doi: 10.1345/aph.1E541.aph.1E541 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dechanont S, Maphanta S, Butthum B, Kongkaew C. Hospital admissions/visits associated with drug-drug interactions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2014 May;23(5):489–97. doi: 10.1002/pds.3592. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources