Consumer Perspectives Regarding Mhealth Effectiveness and Security

Abstract

Background: Almost 200,000 mobile health apps currently are available for consumers, yet there is little oversight or empirical evidence of their effectiveness. There is also limited research and understanding of whether the lay consumer community values scientific rigor (either in the app development or potential impact) and how these perceptions influence their decision making in which health apps they choose to use. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to gather insights from a national sample of adults about the factors that influence the mHealth apps they select to download and their perspectives on the value of evidence-based or proven mHealth apps and issues regarding security of their information. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of a national sample of approximately 3,300 adult consumers (age 18 and older) was conducted using the Amazon.com labor service, Mechanical Turk (MTurk) which is a robust online panel for market research. Items from national-level questionnaires included: sources of health information, use of mobile devices to access health information, use of mobile health apps, decision making approaches for using mobile health apps, and value of evidence, proven effectiveness, and information security & privacy of mobile health apps. Results: Over 3,000 adults (N=3,106) over approximately 48 hours resulted in N=2,877 evaluable subjects. Subjects were somewhat younger and less diverse when compared with other national survey data. Almost all have used the internet to look for health information online and of these: 90% use their computer/laptop to search 71% use their mobile device to search. 90% think regulation/oversight of health apps is important, 89% would download an app certified by the government, 75% think their doctor’s approval of a health app is important and they are concerned about the security & privacy of health information collected on a mobile app Conclusions: This novel approach to gather consumers’ perspectives of evidence in mobile health apps provides insights into the evidence gap and provides a foundation for further research and educational activities. Presentation Format: I wish my abstract to be considered for either Poster or Oral Presentation.