Risky business

Most apps that promise to help prevent strokes give a false sense of security.

- Nicky Pellegrino

HEALTH

There is no shortage of health and well-being apps. Whether you want to improve sleep, calm your mind or reduce your chance of developing a preventable disease, there is likely to be a digital tool that promises to help. But how reliable are they? And do some of these tools have the potential to harm health, rather than improve it?

“The number of health-related apps is enormous,” says leading epidemiologist and neurologist Valery Feigin. “There are already over 300,000, and new products are entering the market every day.”

The director of AUT’s National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neuroscience, Feigin is concerned that many apps may not be scientifically sound and evidence-based. A review he led of the digital tools available for stroke prevention found just 20 of 2369 web and mobile apps met basic criteria for stroke prevention. Most provided information only about stroke risk, with no guidance on how to reduce it. And only three were judged to be an ideal digital tool for primary stroke prevention. “Some were quite misleading,” says Feigin. “I have no idea where they got the data from.”

Accessible and affordable, digital tools offer plenty of promise but also a chance of false reassurance. “If people are led to believe their risk of having a stroke is low, then they won’t do anything to reduce it,” he says.

Stroke is our third-biggest killer, and a leading cause of serious disability. The number of people experiencing a stroke is increasing, both here and internationally, and the trend is expected to continue.