Highlights
- The Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) is a reliable, multidimensional measure for trialling, classifying, and rating mobile health apps
- MARS rates mobile health apps for reliability, quality, scope of information, aesthetics, subjective quality, and perceived impact
- The NOCD app received an objective quality score of 4.74/5.00, suggesting excellent quality across all measured categories
How to find the best mental health apps
There are thousands of mobile platforms claiming to improve users’ mental health now available on the iTunes and Google Play stores. Users might not know where to start: which of these are clinically effective? Which are easy to use, reliable, and safe? Are there additional criteria that should be considered in making the choice to use a mobile platform as part of a mental health treatment plan? Early evaluation criteria developed to rate mobile health platforms do exist, but were either too general to provide valuable insight, too complex to make useful information accessible to the average user, or too specific to be applied across all mobile health apps.
The Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) was developed by a team of researchers at Queensland University of Technology to classify the quality of mobile health apps on a reliable, multidimensional scale. MARS rates app quality by quantifying engagement, functionality, aesthetics, information quality, and subjective quality, offering a comprehensive view of features deemed most important by top clinicians in the field.
NOCD’s MARS Rating
In an independent rating of NOCD, Queensland University and Psyberguide awarded the app a user experience score of 4.74/5.00, tied with Headspace as the third highest user experience score out of 182 ratings overall. Subcategories include a score of 4.90 for engagement, which qualifies the interactivity and customizability of the app; a score of 4.88 for functionality, which qualifies the performance, ease of use, and navigation within the app; and a score of 3.57 in credibility, or evidence-based research.
These scores showcase our continuing efforts to validate the efficacy of the NOCD platform, improve outcomes, and enable research as we work with our Scientific Advisory Board of expert researchers and clinicians. In tandem with the initial results from Columbia University Medical Center’s study of the NOCD app, which suggest that integrated treatment using the app can lead to “significant reduction” in some patients’ OCD symptoms, NOCD’s MARS rating backs NOCD’s incredible user experience. We’re proud of the positive ratings we’ve received, and eager to keep improving NOCD in all of the above criteria!
If you want to try out the NOCD app for yourself, check it out!
If you or someone you know is struggling with OCD, schedule a free call today with the NOCD clinical team to learn more about how a licensed therapist can help. ERP is most effective when the therapist conducting the treatment has experience with OCD and training in ERP. At NOCD, all therapists specialize in OCD and receive ERP-specific training.
