Acceptability, Effectiveness and Roles of mHealth Applications in Supporting Cancer Pain Self-Management: An Integrative Review (Preprint)

Abstract

Cancer pain remains highly prevalent and persistent throughout survivorship, and it is crucial to investigate the potential of leveraging the advanced features of mHealth apps to empower individuals to self-manage their pain.

This review aims to comprehensively understand the acceptability, pain outcome improvement, and the roles of mHealth apps in supporting cancer pain self-management.

An integrative review followed Souza & Whittemore & Knafl’s six review processes. Literature was searched in PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, PsycINFO, and Embase, from 2013 to 2023. The keywords or controlled vocabulary included cancer patients, pain, self-management, mHealth applications, and relevant synonyms. The Johns Hopkins research evidence appraisal tool evaluated the quality of eligible studies. A narrative synthesis was conducted to analyze the extracted data.

A total of 20 studies were included. The overall quality of the studies was evaluated as high (n=15) to good (n=5). Using mHealth apps to monitor or manage pain was acceptable for most patients with cancer. The internal consistency of mHealth pain measure was 0.96. Daily assessment or reporting engagement rate ranged from 61.9% to 76.8%. mHealth apps were used as multimodal interventions in the studies. Participants had a positive experience using pain apps, finding them enjoyable and user-friendly. Six studies reported that mHealth apps had significant (p<.05) benefits for pain remission (severity and intensity), medication adherence, and a lower frequency of breakthrough pain. The most frequently highlighted roles of mHealth apps included pain monitor/tracker/reminder, pain education facilitator, and pain support coordinator.

mHealth apps are effective and acceptable in supporting self-management. They offer a promising multi-model approach for patients to monitor, track, and manage their pain. These findings provide evidence-based insights for leveraging mHealth apps to support cancer pain self-management. Further research is needed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of mHealth implications in geographically or economically disadvantaged cancer groups.

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