Aplicativos móveis para monitorar o tempo de sono: uma busca sistemática nas lojas online no Brasil

Abstract

Decreased sleep time is detrimental to physical and mental health, negatively impacting daily functioning and quality of life. Mobile health apps (mHealth) can be helpful in improving sleep quality. Objective: To conduct a systematic search of mHealth apps to monitor sleep time in Brazilian online stores and evaluate the selected apps in terms of engagement, functionality, aesthetics and information quality. Methods: A systematic search was carried out to identify mobile applications related to sleep monitoring available on the Google Play Store and the App Store in Brazil and developed or updated between 2020 and 2022. The keywords used were “sleep”, “sleep monitor ”, “sleep technology”, “sleep application”, “hours of sleep” and “sleep quality”. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol was adapted to app store searches. The Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) was used to assess the quality of apps. The characteristics and information of these applications were presented. Data were analyzed descriptively. Results: Of the 2264 relevant mHealth apps identified, 11 were eligible for inclusion. One application only offered recording of hours of sleep, three offered sleep recording and educational content, three monitored sleep time with audiovisual resources, two offered sleep recording with a focus on snoring monitoring and two offered sleep monitoring with individual customizations of content. Apps scored fair on the MARS scale, averaging 3.5 points (SD: 0.8) on a scale of 1 to 5. Most apps scored low due to poor evidence-based information, poor aesthetics and engagement . Conclusion: Although the use of mHealth technologies to monitor sleep time has considerable research potential, it is a relatively new and underexplored topic. Thus, collaboration between researchers, clinical professionals, patients and application developers is necessary for the development of new mHealth applications based on evidence and focused on Brazilian users.