A review of mobile health features for adolescents and young adults with cancer diagnosis

Abstract

Adolescents with cancer seem to be a population with special needs for treatment and support as significant physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes take place at this developmental stage. Interventions via portable and easily accessible devices have proven to be effective in dealing with health-related problems. Adolescents, due to their inherent ability to operate modern technological devices, could benefit from mobile health (mHealth) applications pointing out the necessity of their integration into medical practices and public health. After reviewing 40 articles, it appears that mHealth practices have the potential to overcome some of the obstacles that arise during the treatment process, aiming at optimal symptom management, better treatment outcome and therefore improvement in adolescents’ quality of life. MHealth interventions in the field of adolescent cancer, can offer services such as recording symptoms, improving communication with health care staff, enhancing adherence to therapy, accessing valid sources of information, providing social support, and implementing training in the management of distressing symptoms. This review concludes possible limitations and future research proposals underlying the need of creating a mHealth application that incorporates the aforementioned features.