Australians hoping to reduce medical and physiotherapy costs by using smartphone apps to self-manage lower back pain could be setting themselves up for failure – with a new study outlining the lacklustre quality and lack of individualised medical advice on the apps.
Australians hoping to reduce medical and physiotherapy costs by using smartphone apps to self-manage lower back pain could be setting themselves up for failure – with a new study outlining the lacklustre quality and lack of individualised medical advice on the apps.
The study, published in open-access journal Disability and Rehabilitation, found 25 apps that are available for Apple and Android smartphones offer poor quality advice and information, instead recommending common aerobic exercises that fail to deliver important customised management tools for lower back pain.
Nine of the smartphone apps had to be purchased with some offering an initial one-month trial before monthly fees were introduced.
Flinders University PhD Candidate Claudia Didyk, in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, says the results suggest apps have the potential to improve lower back pain outcomes, however they’re not well regulated, and the quality of information and advice provided is often poor.
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