Mobile Applications for Resting Tremor Assessment in Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Resting tremor is a motor manifestation present in most Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. For its assessment, several scales have been created, but mobile applications could help in objectively assessing resting tremor in PD patients in person and/or remotely in a more ecological scenario. (2) Methods: a systematic review following the PRISMA recommendations was conducted in scientific databases (PubMed, Medline, Science Direct, Academic Search Premier, and Web of Science) and in the main mobile application markets (Google Play, iOS App Store, and Windows Store) to determine the applications available for the assessment of resting tremor in patients with PD using only the measurement components of the phone itself (accelerometers and gyroscopes). (3) Results: 14 articles that used mobile apps to assess resting tremor in PD were included, and 13 apps were identified in the mobile application markets for the same purpose. The risk of bias and of applicability concerns of the articles analyzed was low. Mobile applications found in the app markets met an average of 85.09% of the recommendations for the development of medical mobile applications. (4) Conclusions: the use of mobile applications for the evaluation of resting tremor in PD patients has great potential, but validation studies for this purpose are scarce.