Background: In an ongoing effort to promote physical and mental health within the cancer trajectory, several strategies are applied including mobile health (M-health) and mobile applications. According to WHO, M-health is defined as the exercise of personal and public health by mobile devices such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices and other wireless devices. Objective: We conducted a systematic review on articles published from 2016 to 2019 in peer reviewed journals to identify randomized controlled trials in which the effectiveness of a mobile health intervention was tested. Methods: Search terms included a mix of terms such as cancer , cancer care, cancer management, m-health, Mobile apps. The search strategy lead to five randomized control trials, in which mobile applications were used to support cancer care. Results and Discussion: From the mentioned studies, two were referred to breast cancer patients and the remaining three included a variety of cancer types. M-health applications were found to be effective in QoL improvement, chemotherapy self-management in pain management, improved activities of daily living, knowledge, and self-management. Finally, mobile applications were found to be effective on smoking cessation among cancer survivors. Conclusion: M-health application usage in health care is associated with better outcomes and better QoL in cancer patients.
Key words: cancer care, m-health application.
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