The purpose of this systematic review was to provide a summary of the primary studies available on the efficacy of smartphone apps for self-management in a patient with LBP to support and justify the effectiveness of this treatment, evaluating its effects.

PRISMA guidelines were used to perform this systematic review. Six bibliographic databases were searched: PubMed, Web of Science, PEDro, CINHAL, PsycInfo and Scopus. Papers included in the systematic review should have a search design of a randomized controlled trial. The quality of the clinical trials included was evaluated according to the Rob2 assessment tool.

After eliminating duplicates, 852 records were screened, and 5 RCTs were included in the systematic review. It was impossible to perform a qualitative analysis with meta-analysis because the studies used different interventions, outcome measures and follow-up times. Overall, the analysis of the five randomized control trials showed that smartphone applications reduce pain and disability compared to different types of interventions.

According to our analysis, 4 of the 5 RCTs analyzed show a statistically significant reduction in pain in short/medium term. However, due to the quality of the studies analyzed, it is not possible to draw definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of the smartphone app for the self-management of patients with low back pain. In addition, due to unavailability on European stores and lack of cost information, founded smartphone applications remain hardly usable in clinical practice.

Machado GC, Pinheiro MB, Lee H, Ahmed OH, Hendrick P, Williams C, Kamper SJ. Smartphone apps for the self-management of low back pain: A systematic review. Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol. 2016 Dec;30(6):1098-1109. doi: 10.1016/j.berh.2017.04.002.  PMID: 29103552.