Technological features of smartphone apps for physical activity promotion in patients with COPD: A systematic review

Low physical activity (PA) levels have a negative impact on health status of patients with COPD. Smartphone applications (apps) have the potential to mitigate this problem, although their effectiveness may be hindered by patients’ adherence. Insight into their technological features may help tackle this issue. This systematic review aimed to identify the technological features of apps designed to promote PA in patients with COPD. A systematic literature search was performed in the databases ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science, from 1 Jan 2007 (year of launch of the 1st smartphone) to 29 May 2021. Papers including a smartphone app aiming to promote PA (i.e., daily PA or exercise) in patients with COPD, either alone or with other components, were included. Two independent researchers selected studies and scored the apps features, based on the framework from Mollee et al. (Pers Ubiquitous Comput 2017;21(4):633–43). 16 studies were included and 14 apps identified. A mean of 11 features were implemented (range 7–15, from 38 possible features). The categories Measuring/Monitoring, Information/Analysis and Support/Feedback were present in all apps. The most implemented features were: goal setting (by the app n=6; by the user n=5); display of PA data (graphs n=9, numerical format n=8); summary of PA progress (visual format n=10, text/numbers n=6); and tips and PA advice (n=12). Social features were scarce (n=3). Smartphone apps designed to promote PA in patients with COPD include several features, mainly related to goal setting, PA performance and advice. Further research is needed to explore the role of these features in improving patients’ PA.