Mobile Health Applications in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review of the Reviews

Mobile health (m-Health) is a combination of electronic communications and medical information technology that has helped patients and health care workers during the COVID-19 outbreak. This study aimed to aggregate and highlight findings from existing review studies about applications of m-health to prevent COVID-19.  

This scoping review was conducted based on the Arksey and O'Malley framework after searching the PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases from March 2020 to February 2022. Keywords for the search included the English words "Mobile health";" mobile apps"; "corona disease"; "COVID-19"; and "review." Screening of articles was done in 4 stages.  

Out of 37,569 papers found in the search, after the screening and review process, 22 articles were finally selected. From the analysis of the studies, 2 main categories emerged with the titles of "primary preventive applications" and "secondary preventive applications."

M-health is used in both primary and secondary prevention. The m-health tools can be effective in controlling the spread of COVID-19 and improving the treatment process of this disease by providing various pieces of training related to COVID-19 as well as installing various programs to monitor the condition of patients. Also, m-Health can provide services through the exchange of treatment data between health care providers or between patients and health care providers, as well as provide appropriate training for the remote care needs of patients with COVID-19.