The evolution of mobile apps for asthma: an updated systematic assessment of content and tools

Table 3 Coverage of asthma self-management education topics by information apps

	2011 (n = 23)				New 2013 (n = 44) ¤					All 2013 (n = 59) ¤
Educational topic	No	Partially	Wholly	% ^†	No	Partially	Wholly	%	P value ^‡	No	Partially	Wholly	%
Basic facts about the nature of the condition	2	15	6	91%	9	26	9	80%	0.510	10	37	12	83%
Allergen and trigger avoidance	9	12	2	61%	25	19	0	43%	0.094	33	24	2	44%
The nature of treatment: relievers and preventers	11	7	5	52%	22	18	4	50%	0.333	28	25	6	53%
Recognizing and responding appropriately to acute exacerbations	14	7	2	39%	30	9	5	32%	0.728	41	12	6	31%
How to use treatment	16	6	1	30%	27	17	0	39%	0.259	36	22	1	39%
Self-monitoring and assessment skills	16	6	1	30%	27	16	1	39%	0.632	36	20	3	39%
The role of a written, personalized action plan	18	2	3	22%	34	5	5	23%	1.000	46	6	7	22%
Personalizing the definition of good asthma control	17	5	1	26%	29	15	0	34%	0.244	41	18	0	31%

The table compares the proportion of apps containing asthma self-management education information that address guideline-recommended topics either partially or wholly between 2011 and 2013. Apps focusing solely on complementary and alternative medicine were excluded.
^†The proportion of information apps that wholly or partially address a given educational topic.
^‡Two-tailed probability obtained from the Freeman-Halton extension to Fisher’s exact test of the comparison of topic coverage in apps available in 2011 and those released subsequently. After applying a Holm-Bonferroni correction to control the family-wise error rate at less than or equal to 5%, no comparisons achieved significance.
¤ New 2013, Apps available in 2013 that were not available in 2011; All 2013, All apps available in 2013, excluding those available in 2011 that were subsequently discontinued.

ISSN: 1741-7015