Happiness in marital and long-term romantic relationships positively impacts physical health. However, almost half of first-time marriages end in divorce. In recent years, mobile applications have been developed to improve these relationships. This article conducts a scoping review to examine existing apps and review features related to marital and long-term relationship success factors. The study identified 38 apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, focusing on relationship improvement. Next, apps were evaluated based on relationship factors identified in the literature. Finally, the study discusses the present features and the need to incorporate support for more of these features in future apps.
References
[1]
Schaeffer, K. (2024) For Valentine’s Day, Facts about Marriage and Dating in the U.S. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/08/for-valentines-day-facts-about-marriage-and-dating-in-the-us/
[2]
Cook, C. and Garcia, A.N. (2020) Post-Randomization Bias: Implications for Marriage in the 21st Century. Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy, 28, 69-71. https://doi.org/10.1080/10669817.2020.1739153
[3]
Robles, T.F. (2014) Marital Quality and Health. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 427-432. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414549043
[4]
Kiecolt-Glaser, J.K. and Newton, T.L. (2001) Marriage and Health: His and Hers. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 472-503. https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.127.4.472
[5]
Chung, W. and Kim, R. (2014) Does Marriage Really Matter to Health? Intra-and Inter-Country Evidence from China, Japan, Taiwan Region, and the Republic of Korea. PLOS ONE, 9, e104868. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0104868
[6]
Antezana, G., Venning, A., Blake, V., Smith, D., Winsall, M., Orlowski, S., et al. (2018) An Evaluation of Behaviour Change Techniques in Health and Lifestyle Mobile Applications. Health Informatics Journal, 26, 104-113. https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458218813726
[7]
Statista (2023) Number of Mobile App Downloads Worldwide from 2019 to 2027, by Segment (in Million Downloads). Statista. https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1262881/mobile-app-download-worldwide-by-segment
[8]
Simões, P., Silva, A.G., Amaral, J., Queirós, A., Rocha, N.P. and Rodrigues, M. (2018) Features, Behavioral Change Techniques, and Quality of the Most Popular Mobile Apps to Measure Physical Activity: Systematic Search in App Stores. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 6, e11281. https://doi.org/10.2196/11281
[9]
Schoeppe, S., Alley, S., Rebar, A.L., Hayman, M., Bray, N.A., Van Lippevelde, W., et al. (2017) Apps to Improve Diet, Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour in Children and Adolescents: A Review of Quality, Features and Behaviour Change Techniques. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14, Article No. 83. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-017-0538-3
[10]
Crane, D., Garnett, C., Brown, J., West, R. and Michie, S. (2015) Behavior Change Techniques in Popular Alcohol Reduction Apps. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17, e118. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.4060
[11]
StatCounter (2025) Market Share of Mobile Operating Systems Worldwide from 2009 to 2024, by Quarter. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/272698/global-market-share-held-by-mobile-operating-systems-since-2009/
[12]
Asoodeh, M.H., Khalili, S., Daneshpour, M. and Lavasani, M.G. (2010) Factors of Successful Marriage: Accounts from Self Described Happy Couples. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 5, 2042-2046. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.07.410
[13]
Dey, S. and Ghosh, J. (2016) Factors in the Distribution of Successful Marriage. International Journal of Social Sciences and Management, 3, 60-64. https://doi.org/10.3126/ijssm.v3i1.14315
[14]
Karimi, R., Bakhtiyari, M. and Masjedi Arani, A. (2019) Protective Factors of Marital Stability in Long-Term Marriage Globally: A Systematic Review. Epidemiology and Health, 41, e2019023. https://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2019023
[15]
Vo, V., Chen, G., Aquino, Y.S.J., Carter, S.M., Do, Q.N. and Woode, M.E. (2023) Multi-Stakeholder Preferences for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: A Systematic Review and Thematic Analysis. Social Science & Medicine, 338, Article 116357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116357
[16]
Uppalapati, V.K. and Nag, D.S. (2024) A Comparative Analysis of AI Models in Complex Medical Decision-Making Scenarios: Evaluating ChatGPT, Claude AI, Bard, and Perplexity. Cureus, 16, e52485. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.52485
