Mobile Health (mHealth) apps focused on menopause: Are they any good?

Objective Nowadays, smartphones are becoming an indispensable tool due to the popular use of useful applications (apps) that can be downloaded and installed to aid our everyday lives. The quantity of apps manifested as tools for mobile health (mHealth) is undoubtedly high. The mHealth apps are very popular and cover various and different aspects of health. The first app for women in menopause was presented in 2014. Since then, more apps have been developed. The aim of this study is to identify mHealth apps that address the menopause with a focused view on the degree of medical professional involvement and documented evidence base practice in their design, as well as, underline their potential role in raising awareness regarding health in the community. Methods The official app stores by Google, Apple, Windows and Blackberry were chosen to pool the apps. The keywords used were ‘apps for menopause’, ‘women in menopause’ and ‘menopause’. Eligible apps were selected based on the target consumer, each app’s price, documentation of evidence base practice and documentation of medical professional involvement. Results This search revealed 35 relevant apps, of which 10 were excluded as they were identified as duplicates available for download by more than one app store. Authors excluded also further three mHealth apps, since they were not written in English, and the assessment was difficult due to the language barrier. A total of 22 mHealth menopause apps were included in this study. Medical professional involvement was noted in 27.3% of the mHealth menopause apps, and 22.7% of the total apps used evidence-based information. The mHealth menopause apps were free of charge in 86.4%. Ninety-one percent of the apps were designed for the consumers, while only 9% of them were suitable for medical professionals. Conclusions In conclusion, there is a need to improve the mHealth apps available for menopause, by including more medical staff in their development and by establishing clear regulation around the development and the context of an mHealth app.