05 Nov Many Of Us Download, But Don’t Use, Health Apps
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dustin T. Duncan, ScD
Assistant Professor
Department of Population Health and
Dr. Paul Krebs PhD
Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health
New York University School of Medicine
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Krebs: Everyone seems to be talking about health apps, but there was no quality research on what was actually happening in the US with regard to these apps. Knowing why people use and don’t use health-related apps is critical for advancing this area of healthcare. In terms of main findings, we found that a little over half of Americans are using a health-related app, primarily in the domains of fitness and nutrition. We also found greater use among minority populations, younger persons, among people who were obese, and those with higher incomes. Surprisingly we found that about 40% of people would not pay anything for a health app. Hidden costs and difficulty of data entry were main reasons people stopped using them.
Dr. Duncan: Little is know about health app use, which was surprising to us—especially because many people have smartphones so downloading a health app can easy. We wanted to understand the landscape of health app use and patterns in the US to ultimately improve the population’s health.
Medical Research: What are some of the advantages and concerns of smartphone health applications?
Dr. Krebs: In terms of advantages the majority of the sample indicated that they felt the apps improved their health at least somewhat. Apps can provide private and individualized information that is highly Moving beyond fitness and nutrition apps they have a huge potential of increasing access to care and healthcare advice, although these content domains are the most underdeveloped at this point. On the other hand, non-app users especially were concerned about cost, trusting their data to the apps, and not feeling that any apps would be useful for them. While a major theme was that respondents wanted more healthcare-focused apps, providing individualized diagnosis and/or advice is challenging from a quality assurance and liability perspective.
Dr. Duncan: Most people who downloaded a health app felt that is improved their health, which we think is an advantage. However, little is known about the effectiveness of health app to improve health outcomes and for what populations.
Medical Research: What suggestions do you have for clinicians and app developers to improve the health of Americans through smartphone apps?
Dr. Krebs: Only 20% of respondents reported that a doctor recommended a health app. This is likely due to a very limited evidence base for their efficacy as well as difficulty of sorting through the breath of content. Even though people in our survey felt they were helpful, this is not sufficient rationale for doctors to recommend apps to patients. Lack of evidence likely limiting both their efficacy as well as enthusiasm from the healthcare sector which is used to randomized clinical trials. App developers need to pay more attention to partnering with researchers and submitting their apps to clinical testing as other interventions. I think this is related to another finding which was that a large percent would not pay anything for a health app upfront and also stopped using apps that required in-payment later. People need to feel they are getting value from their apps and creating a high quality evidence base would do much to convince both clinicians and users that they are worth the investment of patients’ time and expense. Additionally, ease of data entry and user interfaces appear to be a significant barrier for increased use. This will require greater attention on the part of developers to usability testing for diverse populations.
Dr. Duncan: : Our results overall have real implications for clinicians and app developers. It is clear that health apps need to be improved as almost a half of the participants reported they downloaded health apps that they no longer use.
Citation:
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Dustin T. Duncan, ScD and Paul Krebs, PhD (2015). Many Of Us Download, But Don’t Use, Health Apps
Last Updated on November 5, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD