BACKGROUND
Usability has been touted as one determiner of success of mobile Health (mHealth) interventions. While multiple systematic reviews of usability assessment approaches for different mHealth solutions for physical rehabilitation are available, there is a lack of synthesis of this portion of the literature.
OBJECTIVE
To summarise systematic reviews examining usability assessment tools in mHealth interventions including physical rehabilitation.
METHODS
An umbrella review was conducted according to a published registered protocol (CRD42022338785). A topic-based search was conducted of Pubmed, Cochrane, IEEEXplore, Epistemonikos and Web of Science from January 2015 to April 2023 for systematic reviews investigating usability assessment tools in mHealth interventions including physical exercise rehabilitation. Eligibility screening, data extraction and assessment of the methodological quality (AMSTAR2) was completed and data tabulated for synthesis.
RESULTS
A total of 12 systematic reviews were included of which three (25%) did not refer to any theoretical usability framework. The sample referenced a total of 32 usability assessment tools and 66 custom-made, as well as hybrid, measures. Information on psychometric properties was included for nine instruments (28%) with satisfactory internal consistency and structural validity. A lack of reliability, responsiveness and cross-cultural validity data was found. The methodological quality of the systematic reviews was limited with eight studies (67%) displaying two or more critical weaknesses.
CONCLUSIONS
There is significant diversity in the usability assessment of mHealth for rehabilitation and a link to theoretical models is often lacking. There is widespread use of custom-made measures and pre-existing measures often do not display sufficient psychometric strength. As a result, existing mHealth usability evaluations are difficult to compare. It is proposed that multi-method usability assessment is employed and that, in the selection of usability measures, there is a focus on explicit reference to their theoretical underpinning and acceptable psychometric properties.
CLINICALTRIAL
PROSPERO CRD42022338785; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/#recordDetails