Scoping review: the empowerment of Alzheimer's Disease caregivers with mHealth applications.
systematic_review · Level I
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34493819.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41746-021-00506-4 and PMC identifier 8423781.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative chronic diseases. As it progresses, patients become increasingly dependent, and their caregivers are burdened with the increasing demand for managing their care. Mobile health (mHealth) technology, such as smartphone applications, can support the need of these caregivers. This paper examines the published academic literature of mHealth applications that support the caregivers of AD patients. Following the PRISMA for scoping reviews, we searched published literature in five electronic databases between January 2014 and January 2021. Twelve articles were included in the final review. Six themes emerged based on the functionalities provided by the reviewed applications for caregivers. They are tracking, task management, monitoring, caregiver mental support, education, and caregiver communication platform. The review revealed that mHealth applications for AD patients' caregivers are inadequate. There is an opportunity for industry, government, and academia to fill the unmet need of these caregiver.