A Systematic Review of the Scope of Study of mHealth Interventions for Wellness and Related Challenges in Pediatric and Young Adult Populations

BACKGROUND: Despite the purported advantages and potential efficacy of mHealth interventions to promote wellness in children, adolescents, and young adults, it is not clear what areas have been explored and the challenges reported in the biomedical literature. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review of publications between 2015 and 2019. RESULTS: We identified 54 papers that met our inclusion criteria. Studies were conducted in 21 countries and ranged in size from six to 9851 participants (median: 184). A total of 41% of studies enrolled adolescents only (n = 19). Of the seven types of mHealth interventions identified, apps were the most common intervention (59%; n = 32) evaluated and 44% of the studies evaluated two or more interventions. The most common topic of the studies reviewed was sexual and reproductive health (24%; n = 13). CONCLUSION: Most pediatric mHealth intervention studies are conducted in adolescents in large part, and sexual and reproductive health is the most commonly studied topic. With the easy and widespread accessibility to smartphone technology, the use of mobile apps for wellness interventions will likely continue to expand to other wellness topics.