The Relationship Between Mobile Health Application Use and Perceived Health Improvement of Mississippi Adults
Stephanie Floyd, BS1, Sumair Ozair, BS2, Jennifer L. Lemacks, PhD, RD3, Tammy Greer, PhD3, Sermin Aras, MS, RD3
1Mississippi INBRE Outreach Scholar, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS
2Mississippi INBRE Outreach Scholar, William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Hattiesburg, MS
3Mississippi INBRE Telenutrition Center, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS
There are currently over 259,000 mobile health applications (apps) available to consumers. Many of these apps are designed to make health information more accessible and to promote positive health outcomes, such as an increase in regular physical activity or a reduction of the risk of chronic disease in order to create a greater sense of well-being. However, more research is necessary to verify if these apps improve user physical health perception. Application usage can affect its perceived helpfulness, thus altering the perception of health benefits experienced by the user. Thus, the purpose of this research is to determine if the use of mobile health apps improve the physical health of adult app users in Mississippi and whether they perceived health improvements. Participants (n=210) that reportedly used mobile health apps included in our study were Mississippi residents above the age of 18 years old with mean age of 43.88 (SD=15.6). A vast majority of the participants were female (81.9%), 42.4% identified as American Indian, and 44.4% identified as single. 70.5% of participants received a 2-year or vocational degree or less, and 58.3% had a yearly income below $30,000. Recruitment of these participants occurred during multiple outreach events held in the community and at a Mississippi university. All participants had a chance to win a $50 gift card and received a giveaway incentive upon survey completion (whether handwritten or electronic). Pearson correlation analyses were conducted using SPSS 20.0 to determine the association between participant identified purpose for use of health apps and their perception of health improvement related to health app use. Of the 14 reasons for the use of health apps, the were five specific purposes (“Help me with what I eat/improve what I eat,” p= 0.003; “Show/teach me exercises,” p=0.010; “Track how much I sleep,” p=0.004; “Access health information on symptoms, treatments, diagnoses, etc.,” p=0.025; and “I want to kill time when bored,” p=0.048) that were significantly and positively associated with perceived overall health improvement; nine showed no relationship. Thus, there seems to be some evidence to suggest that a relationship may exist between the purpose of health app use and perceived improvement in overall health. Future research is needed to determine the influence of health app use on health behaviors and outcomes. Health app usage may facilitate motivation and support for health improvement.