Assessing Consumer-Facing Mobile Apps for Recovery Management for People With Opioid Use Disorder

Mobile technologies offer unique advantages when compared to the traditional care model for people with opioid use disorder (OUD). While mobile technology platforms can increase chronic illness management and medication adherence in the primary care settings, less is known about using mobile technologies to help support OUD treatment and recovery.

This session is based on a study to assess the usability of the consumer-facing OUD apps and then analyze user comments to perform a sentiment analysis on them. The study extracted app ratings and reviews for the mobile apps for OUD found in Google Play Store. Data were collected between August 1 and August 3, 2021. The search criteria were OUD-related apps written in the English language. Excluded apps were conference apps, medical exams, OUD dictionaries, drug tests, OUD games, and OUD apps not related to treatment or recovery, as well as those with user ratings less than three or with fewer than 25 raters. A final sample of 35 apps remained.

These apps offered self-care tips, awareness, connection, understanding, and hope to individuals with OUD. Data suggest that consumer-facing OUD apps are useful and help people in recovery; users find trust and belonging in the online community; and that OUD apps could be improved with real-time chat functions, emergency help buttons, and alerts sent to family and friends by auto-detection of crisis situations based on conversations or symptom recorded. Therefore, healthcare professionals should be open-minded about using the consumer-facing apps.