Evaluation of the Smartphone Applications in Antibiotic Prescription

One of the important challenges for physicians is the choice of the right antibiotics for various diseases. In this regard, a mobile application could be helpful. The main purpose of this study was to compare the quality of mobile applications designed for an antibiotic prescription to help physicians in choosing the right antibiotic.

In this study, English non-commercial apps from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store were searched using relevant keywords. The apps were selected and independently scored by an infectious disease specialist and a pharmacist using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). Kendall’s coefficient of concordance was used to assess inter-rater agreement. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to verify the normal distribution of the quantitative variables. Spearman's rank-order correlation was applied to determine the relationship between MARS scores and quantitative background variables and Mann-Whitney U tests for dichotomous variables. -

In the initial search until August 2022, 13 apps were eligible for evaluation. The MARS score obtained by applications without in-app advertisements (median: 3.9, IQR: 3.4-6.1) was significantly higher than applications containing advertisements (median: 2.9, IQR: 2.3-8.1) (P=0.029). In the objective domain of MARS, The highest mean domain score belonged to the engagement section (3.9±0.4) and the lowest mean domain score belonged to the functionality section (3.5±0.5).

This study indicated that apps designed to help physicians prescribe antibiotics meet acceptable criteria. Considering objective scores of MARS, lower scores in the “engagement” section demonstrated that designers have paid less attention to this section in comparison to the “information quality” section.