BACKGROUND Tinnitus has become a global medical problem, can seriously harm human health, is challenging to alleviate, and ranks among the top three complex diseases in otolaryngology. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to analyse the research progress of mHealth for tinnitus treatment with related marketed products to further understand the research trends, product characteristics, problems, and transformation of tinnitus treatment software. METHODS Bibliometric methods were used to describe the characteristics of the relevant literature in terms of the number, authors, institutions, and topics. Using comparative product analysis, we compared the product features and problems of currently available tinnitus treatment software. RESULTS The data search was conducted for the period up to Feb 28, 2022. Following the PRISMA standardised screening process, 75 papers were finally included. The country with the most publications was Germany, followed by the UK and the USA, while China had only one relevant study. The most published journals were the American Journal of Audiology and Journal of the American Academy of Audiology (18,24%). As for the topics of publication, cognitive behavioural therapy started to become a hot topic in 2017, and research on mHealth increased. Including 22 pieces (78.6%) were medical or health apps; developers were mainly from the US (35.7%) and China (32.1%), with 35.7% (10) and 32.1% (9) respectively; the main treatment methods were sound therapy (10,35.7%) and cognitive behavioural therapy (2,7.1%). Seven (9.3%) of the 75 publications described products at the market stage, and 22 (78.6%) of the 28 marketed products lacked literature studies or evidence from professional bodies. CONCLUSIONS The use of mHealth for the treatment and intervention of tinnitus has shown an overall rapid development trend, in which good progress has been made in research on acoustic and cognitive behavioural therapies, and most studies have focused on treatment effects.

Background As a global medical problem, tinnitus can seriously harm human health and is difficult to alleviate, ranking among the top 3 complex diseases in the otolaryngology field. Traditional cognitive behavioral therapy and sound therapy require offline face-to-face treatment with medical staff and have limited effectiveness. Mobile health (mHealth), which, in recent decades, has been greatly applied in the field of rehabilitation health care, improving access to health care resources and the quality of services, has potential research value in the adjunctive treatment of tinnitus. Objective This study aimed to understand the research trends, product characteristics, problems, and research transformation of tinnitus treatment software by analyzing the research progress of mHealth for tinnitus treatment based on the literature and related marketed apps. Methods Bibliometric methods were used to describe the characteristics of the relevant literature in terms of the number and topics of publications, authors, and institutions. We further compared the features and limitations of the currently available tinnitus treatment software. Results Data published until February 28, 2022, were collected. Following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) standardized screening process, 75 papers were included. The country with the highest number of publications was Germany, followed by the United Kingdom and the United States, whereas China had only a single relevant study. The most frequently found journals were the American Journal of Audiology and the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology (18/75, 24%). With regard to publication topics, cognitive behavioral therapy started to become a hot topic in 2017, and research on mHealth apps has increased. In this study, 28 tinnitus treatment apps were obtained (n=24, 86% from product data and n=4, 14% from literature data); these apps were developed mainly in the United States (10/28, 36%) or China (9/28, 32%). The main treatment methods were sound therapy (10/28, 36%) and cognitive behavioral therapy (2/28, 7%). Of the 75 publications, 7 (9%) described apps in the market stage. Of the 28 apps, 22 (79%) lacked literature studies or evidence from professional bodies. Conclusions We found that, as a whole, the use of mHealth for treatment and intervention in tinnitus was showing a rapid development, in which good progress had been made in studies around sound therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy, although most of the studies (50/75, 67%) focused on treatment effects. However, the field is poorly accepted in top medical journals, and the majority are in the research design phase, with a lack of translation of the literature results and clinical validation of the marketed apps. Furthermore, in the future, novel artificial intelligence techniques should be used to address the issue of staged monitoring of tinnitus.