Evaluation of Mobile Phone Applications relat-ed to COVID-19 Using Mobile App Rating Scale

Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) is a well-known ranking tool used to evaluate the quality of mobile health applications. In this study, we translated MARS into Persian and evaluated the quality of COVID-19-related applications in Iran. 

This study was conducted in two stages. First, MARS tool was translated into Persian, then back-translated into English, and finally, the corrected version was developed. In the second stage, applications for COVID-19 were searched in Cafe Bazaar, Sib App, Sib Irani and Myket applica-tion stores between July 2023 and December 2023. We used the translated version of the MARS to eval-uate the quality of the identified applications and rank them accordingly. 

After developing the final version of the MARS, we measured its reliability using Cronbach's al-pha coefficient, which ranged from 0.79 to 0.81. Twelve applications were included in the study. Among the reviewed applications, the highest score was related to Corona Virus, with a mean of 4.20. Also, 33.8% of the applications were ranked as good, 50% as acceptable, and 66.41% as poor. 

The present study showed that the applications designed for COVID-19 are generally not of acceptable quality.  A low score in the dimension of engagement suggests that the designers have paid less attention to the quality of the information contained in and the attractiveness of the applications.