Bondaronek, P;
Alkhaldi, G;
Slee, A;
Hamilton, FL;
Murray, E;
(2018)
Quality of Publicly Available Physical Activity Apps: Review and Content Analysis.
JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth
, 6
(3)
, Article e53. 10.2196/mhealth.9069.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Within the new digital health landscape, the rise of health apps creates novel prospects for health promotion. The market is saturated with apps that aim to increase physical activity (PA). Despite the wide distribution and popularity of PA apps, there are limited data on their effectiveness, user experience, and safety of personal data. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this review and content analysis was to evaluate the quality of the most popular PA apps on the market using health care quality indicators. METHODS: The top-ranked 400 free and paid apps from iTunes and Google Play stores were screened. Apps were included if the primary behavior targeted was PA, targeted users were adults, and the apps had stand-alone functionality. The apps were downloaded on mobile phones and assessed by 2 reviewers against the following quality assessment criteria: (1) users' data privacy and security, (2) presence of behavior change techniques (BCTs) and quality of the development and evaluation processes, and (3) user ratings and usability. RESULTS: Out of 400 apps, 156 met the inclusion criteria, of which 65 apps were randomly selected to be downloaded and assessed. Almost 30% apps (19/65) did not have privacy policy. Every app contained at least one BCT, with an average number of 7 and a maximum of 13 BCTs. All but one app had commercial affiliation, 12 consulted an expert, and none reported involving users in the app development. Only 12 of 65 apps had a peer-reviewed study connected to the app. User ratings were high, with only a quarter of the ratings falling below 4 stars. The median usability score was excellent-86.3 out of 100. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the popularity of PA apps available on the commercial market, there were substantial shortcomings in the areas of data safety and likelihood of effectiveness of the apps assessed. The limited quality of the apps may represent a missed opportunity for PA promotion.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Quality of Publicly Available Physical Activity Apps: Review and Content Analysis |
| Location: | Canada |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.2196/mhealth.9069 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.9069 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © Paulina Bondaronek, Ghadah Alkhaldi, April Slee, Fiona L Hamilton, Elizabeth Murray. Originally published in JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 21.03.2018. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR mhealth and uhealth, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://mhealth.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. |
| Keywords: | eHealth review, exercise, health behavior, health promotion, mHealth, mobile applications |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Primary Care and Population Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10045892 |
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