Mobile Applications: Breaking Barriers to Early Breast and Cervical Cancer Detection in Underserved Communities

Digital health interventions for cervical cancer care: A systematic review and future research opportunities

BACKGROUND

Cervical cancer is a malignancy among women worldwide, which is responsible for innumerable deaths every year. The primary objective of this review study is to offer a comprehensive and synthesized overview of the existing literature concerning digital interventions in cervical cancer care. As such, we aim to uncover prevalent research gaps and highlight prospective avenues for future investigations.

METHODS

This study adopted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) methodology where a total of 26 articles were reviewed from an initial set of 1110 articles following an inclusion-exclusion criterion.

RESULTS

The review highlights a deficiency in existing studies that address awareness dissemination, screening facilitation, and treatment provision for cervical cancer. The review also reveals future research opportunities like explore innovative approaches using emerging technologies to enhance awareness campaigns and treatment accessibility, consider diverse study contexts, develop sophisticated machine learning models for screening, incorporate additional features in machine learning research, investigate the impact of treatments across different stages of cervical cancer, and create more user-friendly applications for cervical cancer care.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study can contribute to mitigating the adverse effects of cervical cancer and improving patient outcomes. It also highlights the untapped potential of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, which could significantly impact our society.

Use of digital technologies to support cancer screening in community health promotion interventions: scoping review

The scoping review investigated how digital technologies have helped to increase cancer screening uptake in communities including adolescents, adults and elderly people during the COVID-19 outbreak between January 2020 and June 2021. Thirteen studies were identified as being relevant, mostly addressing underserved or minority communities with the purpose to increase screening uptake, delivering health education or investigating social and cultural barriers to cancer screening. The interventions effectively used digital technologies such as mobile apps and messengers mobile apps, messaging and Web platforms. The limitations imposed by COVID-19 on social interaction can be supported with digital solutions to ensure the continuity of cancer screening programs. However, more research is needed to clarify the exact nature of effectiveness, especially in large-scale interventions.

Evaluation of mobile health applications for cervical cancer in the digital marketplace

Objective

To assess the quality of mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) for cervical cancer using the mobile app rating scale (MARS), APPLICATIONS scoring system, and app rating using specific statements.

Methods

We searched for cervical cancer apps on two major mobile operating systems (Google Play Store and Apple iTunes Store) in March 2021. Eligible apps were downloaded and assessed for quality by two independent reviewers using multimodal assessment tools.

Results

The overall quality of the MARS score was 2.61±0.795. The highest scoring app was “The American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) Management Guidelines” (3.98). Overall, apps scored highest in the functionality domain, followed by information, engagement, and aesthetics domains. The mean±standard deviation of the APPLICATIONS scoring system was 8.50±1.712. The highest-rated apps were “ASCCP Management Guidelines,” “The British Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (BSCCP),” and “Cervical Cancer Guide.” Apps scored the highest in the paid subscription and price domains. By contrast, apps scored poorly in the text search, literature, and subjective presentation domains. Concerning app content, many apps infrequently provided misconceptions regarding cervical cancer. The apps’ rating using specific statements was 7.81±4.562.

Conclusion

Overall, the apps analyzed using the MARS and APPLICATIONS scoring systems demonstrated above-average quality. However, there is a need to improve the essential information conveyed by these applications. Moreover, the assessment tools have influenced different app quality rating results, confirming the lack of standardized quality assessment tools for mHealth apps.