Researchers collected information on available apps for the eight most common conditions as classified by the World Health Organization (in descending order: iron-deficiency anemia, hearing loss, migraine, low vision, asthma, diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis and unipolar depressive disorders).Information on the number of available apps was gathered through published articles on app development and through searches of commercial app stores, such as iTunes and Google Play.
Results showed that the four most common conditions — iron-deficiency anemia, hearing loss, migraine and low vision — have far fewer available apps than asthma, diabetes and depression, three of the four less common conditions.
The findings suggest that mobile app development is commercially, rather than academically, motivated, as more apps were found in the commercial stores than in published reports on research-based development, and were focused on conditions that were of more interest to consumers in developed countries.
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