Stuttering mHealth Applications: Development of A Qualitative Rubric Assessment (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Mobile applications (apps) that offer various techniques to improve stuttering have flourished the digital marketplace. In evidence-based clinical practice, speech therapists will recommend audio-enriched mobile apps to individuals with stuttering problems based on empirical research evidence. Unfortunately, many developers of stuttering mobile apps have overlooked a substantial research base before the apps become available in the market. Hence, speech therapists necessitate a guideline to assess the quality of a stuttering mobile app before recommending the app to stutterers. OBJECTIVE The study aims to develop a rubric intended to be an instrument to assess the quality of stuttering mobile apps in helping speech therapists to make appropriate recommendations on stuttering mobile apps as an assistive technology to support stuttering treatments and therapies. METHODS In the study, three rubric development phases are involved: a review of the literature, an online expert survey, and a focus group discussion. In Phase 1, a thorough review of the literature is carried out in search of the criteria of a quality m-health. Strong theoretical grounds and empirical works are the basis of the criteria identification, resulting in a total of 45 criteria are extracted. In Phase 2, an online survey questionnaire designed to establish content validity for each criterion is distributed with seven speech therapists and a researcher in speech disfluency participate in the rating process of each criterion critical for a stuttering mobile app. In Phase 3, a focus group discussion aims to jointly develop a rubric serving as a tool to assess stuttering m-health apps quality. RESULTS Each criterion of the 45 evaluative dimensions is rated based on the experts’ experience and knowledge in using assistive mobile apps in conducting a therapy with stutterers under their care. These ratings are collected and analyzed. The validity of each criterion based on the ratings collected is identified through the Content Validity Ratio (CVR). The outcome of this study is a rubric designed with four categories and 18-evaluative dimensions tailored to analyze the quality of stuttering mobile apps. The stuttering mobile app assessment rubric serves multiple purposes, chiefly as an evaluation instrument, providing guidelines for developing stuttering mobile apps and creating a standard form that the professionals working with speech disfluency individuals can utilize to facilitate a collective effort. CONCLUSIONS The study has included evidence-based research determined based on health practitioners’ feedbacks for the development of rubric in assessing the stuttering mobile apps quality. This final rubric offers guidance for future development of evidence-based and theoretically grounded stuttering mobile apps. CLINICALTRIAL