Affiliations: [a] Université Paris 8-Vincennes-Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis, France | [b] Centre Hospitalier de Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis, France
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Clémence Chassan, Université Paris 8-Vincennes-Saint-Denis, (EA 4004 CHArt) and Centre Hospitalier de Saint-Denis, 93200 Saint-Denis, France. E-mail: clemence.chassan@gmail.com.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic degenerative neurological disease with visual, sensitive, motor, or cognitive symptoms. Physical activities are recommended for people with MS (pwMS) who are at home instead of in a rehabilitation program, to help them to maintain their autonomy. Since a lack of motivation appears to be the principal barrier for pwMS to practice exercises, it is necessary to evaluate whether mobile health (mHealth) tools can offer a solution to stimulate their motivation. OBJECTIVE: This literature review analyzes papers to investigate to how a mobile application can motivate pwMS to practice physical activities and manage their fatigue. METHODS: We performed an automatic query from digital libraries and analyzed the studies. RESULTS: We selected seven articles that responded to our criteria. These studies tested mobile applications that used different strategies to motivate pwMS to practice physical exercises at home and manage their fatigue. A lack of motivation was the main obstacle, but depending on the type of exercises chosen, some application settings seemed to resolve this issue. CONCLUSIONS: Studies in this area are limited, although this literature review highlights the need for mHealth tools in which pwMS and their therapists contribute to their use and conception.
