Most prevalent health conditions get the short stick from mHealth

[Image omitted] - Of the eight most prevalent health conditions globally, diabetes and depression have an overwhelming number of mobile applications and research, while there is a lack of apps and research related to other conditions such as anemia, hearing loss and low vision, according to research published recently in the Journal of Medical Internet Research .

The most prevalent conditions, as established by the World Health Organization: iron-deficiency anemia, hearing loss, migraine, low vision, asthma, diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis (OA), and unipolar depressive disorders. Nevertheless, the "distribution of work on mobile applications is not equal for the eight most prevalent conditions," the article's authors said.

The results are based on a review of mobile apps in published articles and a review of commercially available mHealth apps, both of which were current as of April 2013, according...