Assessing the Impact of Usability from Evaluating Mobile Health Applications

Busari, Azeezat; Jaber, Tareq; Gordon, Neil; Mian, Zhibao

Abstract

Software applications that are used to monitor, track, and improve health are called Mobile Health Applications or mHAs. They are developed with or without the help of medical professionals to potentially aid health, achieve health goals and improve lifestyle or behavior. Although mobile Health Applications have been on the market since the advent of mobile applications, the pandemic saw to a 25% increase in the number of mobile health applications available on the app stores. This indicates the growing demand for mHAs. This research was conducted to evaluate the impact of usability of mobile health applications. The dataset used to carry out this research is a review data set of health-condition management focused apps. These apps managed conditions like Diabetes, Depression, Hypertension, etc. System Usability Score, Net Promoter Score, App Ratings, Patient engagement was some of the features that were used to conduct the research. There were low correlations between App’s reaction to dangerous information and usability score (0.17), Existence of privacy policy and usability score (-0.032), IOS App Rating and Usability Score (0.053), Android App Rating and Usability Score (-0.029). Patient, Caregiver/Clinicians engagement-based variables like ‘does the app makes reference to specific disease guidelines’, ‘in what way does the app engage patients’, ‘does the app provide support through social media’ showed higher correlations with usability scores and clinical utility. It is recommended that to evaluate the usability of mobile health applications, a combination of usability measuring methods be used.

Citation

Busari, A., Jaber, T., Gordon, N., & Mian, Z. (2024). Assessing the Impact of Usability from Evaluating Mobile Health Applications. International Journal on Engineering Technologies and Informatics, 5(2), https://doi.org/10.51626/ijeti.2024.05.00074

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 29, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Feb 29, 2024
• Publication Date: Feb 29, 2024
• Deposit Date: Apr 27, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 29, 2024
• Journal: International Journal on Engineering Technologies and Informatics
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 2
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.51626/ijeti.2024.05.00074
• Keywords: Mobile Health Applications; Usability; System Usability Scores; Patient engagement
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4634445
• Publisher URL: https://skeenapublishers.com/journal/ijeti/IJETI-05-00074.pdf