Mobile phone apps can effectively influence health-related behavior change, with features like user-friendly design, real-time feedback, and health professional involvement improving their effectiveness.

Can Mobile Phone Apps Influence People’s Health Behavior Change? An Evidence Review

Mobile apps show positive participant perceptions and high study completion rates, but little evidence supports their effectiveness in improving health behaviors or outcomes.

Mobile Apps for Health Behavior Change in Physical Activity, Diet, Drug and Alcohol Use, and Mental Health: Systematic Review

This review found a lack of clear best practices for evaluating mobile health apps for behavior change and health, with few measures providing sufficient information for consumers.

Evaluating mobile phone applications for health behaviour change: A systematic review

Common behavior change techniques, such as goal setting, self-monitoring, feedback, prompts, rewards, and social support, are associated with user engagement in mobile health apps.

Potential associations between behavior change techniques and engagement with mobile health apps: a systematic review

Mobile health apps show a weak evidence-based advantage over standard care in modifying behavior to promote health and manage disease, highlighting the need for improved methodological and evaluative approaches.

Effectiveness of Mobile Apps to Promote Health and Manage Disease: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Mobile apps show promise in assisting individuals in changing their health behaviors, with high user acceptance, but more rigorous research and evaluations are needed to determine efficacy and best practices.

Behavioral Functionality of Mobile Apps in Health Interventions: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Few health apps use gamification, with a wide variation in behavior change techniques, potentially limiting potential improvements in health outcomes.

Gamification for health promotion: systematic review of behaviour change techniques in smartphone apps

Mobile health applications positively impact health-related behaviors and clinical health outcomes, with users reporting higher satisfaction compared to conventional care.

Effectiveness of Mobile Health Application Use to Improve Health Behavior Changes: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Apps for healthy lifestyle behaviors need improvement in functionality and behavior change techniques to effectively promote sustained and significant lifestyle behavior change.

Using Health and Well-Being Apps for Behavior Change: A Systematic Search and Rating of Apps

Interventions promoting mHealth app prescriptions by healthcare providers can improve knowledge, self-efficacy, and prescription rates.

Interventions Aimed at Enhancing Health Care Providers’ Behavior Toward the Prescription of Mobile Health Apps: Systematic Review

Health apps for patients with chronic conditions or multimorbidity are of acceptable quality but have low to moderate potential for promoting behavior change.

The Quality of Health Apps and Their Potential to Promote Behavior Change in Patients With a Chronic Condition or Multimorbidity: Systematic Search in App Store and Google Play

Personalization, associations, and goals and planning techniques are the most used behavior change techniques in mHealth apps, but their effectiveness varies and requires further research on longer follow-up periods.

mHealth Apps Using Behavior Change Techniques to Self-report Data: Systematic Review

Mobile health apps informed by behavior change theory significantly improve health outcomes for conditions like physical activity, dietary changes, and diabetes.

Mobile Applications for Behavioral Change

Commercial mobile health apps can be evaluated using content analyses, usability testing, and efficacy testing to increase their adoption in clinical practice and inform future app development.

Methods for Evaluating the Content, Usability, and Efficacy of Commercial Mobile Health Apps

Health apps are primarily used by younger, more educated individuals with higher incomes, who are more likely to intend to change diet and physical activity and meet physical activity recommendations.

Who Uses Mobile Phone Health Apps and Does Use Matter? A Secondary Data Analytics Approach

Mobile app-based health promotion programs show better health outcomes for general population users compared to non-users, with common topics including diet, physical activity, and overall healthy lifestyle improvement.

Mobile App-Based Health Promotion Programs: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Nutrition apps tailored to specific chronic diseases can significantly improve health outcomes, but further research is needed on their sustainability.

Behavior Change Effectiveness Using Nutrition Apps in People With Chronic Diseases: Scoping Review

Perceived usefulness, ease of use, flow experience, and behavioral change techniques significantly influence users' continuance intention for health apps, with satisfaction acting as a mediator.

Mobile apps for healthy living: Factors influencing continuance intention for health apps

MHealth apps are more useful for older, African American, and confident individuals, but their usefulness varies by personal factors, indicating a multidimensional digital divide in US adults.

Use of Mobile Health Applications for Health-Seeking Behavior Among US Adults

Health apps for chronic disease management need more robust development and appropriate study characteristics to sustain evidence generation and avoid biased results due to unsuitable designs.

Development features and study characteristics of mobile health apps in the management of chronic conditions: a systematic review of randomised trials

What is the impact of mobile apps on health behavior change?

Some studies suggest mobile apps can effectively influence health behavior change through user-friendly design, real-time feedback, and professional involvement, while other studies highlight a lack of clear evidence and best practices for their effectiveness.