Mobile Applications for Advance Care Planning: A Comprehensive Review of Features, Quality, Content, and Readability.
Meghan McDarby, Danielle Llaneza, Login George and 1 others
PMID 32938207WHAT IT FOUND
Seven of nine advance care planning apps were free, but six had no knowledge content and eight had poor or average visual appeal.
No app was recommended for use.
Key findings
01Seven of nine fully coded apps were free, but features were limited; only one app contained videos and graphics.
02Six apps contained no advance care planning knowledge content, only four contained any contemplation content, and no app encouraged users to think about flexibility for a medical decision maker.
03Reading ease could be scored for only six apps: one very difficult, two fairly difficult, two at high-school level, and one fairly easy.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only ten apps met eligibility, and one eligible app could not be fully coded because it was not functional. The search was limited to English apps available in the United States in April 2020 without an annual fee, so other apps were not assessed. Content linked from an app to a website was not evaluated. Readability was calculated for only six apps because several had limited native text. The review used two expert coders and consensus ratings. The review evaluated app features, quality, content, and readability, not patient outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that mobile apps improve advance care planning outcomes. The review examined app features, quality, content, and readability, and the authors could not recommend any app for use.