Smartphone apps are a promising tool for delivering accessible and appealing physical activity interventions. Given the large growth of research in this field, there are now enough studies using the ..."gold standard" of experimental design-the randomized controlled trial design-and employing objective measurements of physical activity, to support a meta-analysis of these scientifically rigorous studies.
This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the effectiveness of smartphone apps for increasing objectively measured physical activity in adults.
A total of 7 electronic databases (EMBASE, EmCare, MEDLINE, Scopus, Sport Discus, The Cochrane Library, and Web of Science) were searched from 2007 to January 2018. Following the Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome and Study Design format, studies were eligible if they were randomized controlled trials involving adults, used a smartphone app as the primary or sole component of the physical activity intervention, used a no- or minimal-intervention control condition, and measured objective physical activity either in the form of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity minutes or steps. Study quality was assessed using a 25-item tool based on the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials checklist. A meta-analysis of study effects was conducted using a random effects model approach. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to examine whether intervention effectiveness differed on the basis of intervention length, target behavior (physical activity alone vs physical activity in combination with other health behaviors), or target population (general adult population vs specific health populations).
Following removal of duplicates, a total of 6170 studies were identified from the original database searches. Of these, 9 studies, involving a total of 1740 participants, met eligibility criteria. Of these, 6 studies could be included in a meta-analysis of the effects of physical activity apps on steps per day. In comparison with the control conditions, smartphone apps produced a nonsignificant (P=.19) increase in participants' average steps per day, with a mean difference of 476.75 steps per day (95% CI -229.57 to 1183.07) between groups. Sensitivity analyses suggested that physical activity programs with a duration of less than 3 months were more effective than apps evaluated across more than 3 months (P=.01), and that physical activity apps that targeted physical activity in isolation were more effective than apps that targeted physical activity in combination with diet (P=.04). Physical activity app effectiveness did not appear to differ on the basis of target population.
This meta-analysis provides modest evidence supporting the effectiveness of smartphone apps to increase physical activity. To date, apps have been most effective in the short term (eg, up to 3 months). Future research is needed to understand the time course of intervention effects and to investigate strategies to sustain intervention effects over time.
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The delivery of mobile health (mHealth) services is acceptable to mental health consumers. However, despite the benefits of accessibility, cost-effectiveness, anonymity, and ability to tailor content ...to individual needs, consumer engagement remains a hurdle for uptake and continued use. This may be unsurprising as few studies have examined app content from the consumer perspective or assessed consumer preferences for the content of apps for mental health management. An opportunity to examine consumer perspectives exists in using naturally generated data that is publically available in the Google Play and Apple app stores. Whereas commercial developers routinely use this data, to date there has been no in-depth evaluation within scientific research.
The aim of our study was to explore what consumers consider useful content for mental health management apps, identify unmet needs, and understand user expectations of mental health apps within the context of apps for bipolar disorder.
Publically available English language consumer reviews of 48 apps for bipolar disorder were used as data, providing a total of 2173 reviews. Review text was coded and analyzed using a team approach to qualitative content analysis. Results were presented in 2 forms: (1) a quantitative summary of the 9 major and minor themes and (2) a qualitative synthesis of key thematic findings.
The majority of reviews were for symptom monitoring apps (87.94%, 1911/2173). The qualitative content analysis revealed 5 main themes: (1) laudatory talk, comments regarding the app's benefits including helpfulness and successful design features (74.00% of reviews, 1608/2173); (2) unfavorable feedback, negative reviews largely concerning unmet needs, privacy and technical issues, and potential dangers of app use (25.54%, 555/2173); (3) conceptions of community, referring to both communities of users with mental ill-health accessed via the app and a community created among app users and developers (24.25%, 527/2173); (4) wishlist features, app features requested by users (17.53%, 381/2173); and (5) apps and therapy, app use within clinical care (10.58%, 230/2173). Four minor themes were also identified: (1) app cost, (2) privacy and data security, (3) comparisons with traditional monitoring, and (4) evidence-based mHealth.
Although mostly positive, the proportion of reviews containing wishlist requests indicates consumer needs are not adequately addressed by currently available disorder management apps. Consumers value content that is helpful, supportive, and easy to use, and they are integrating apps into their health management and clinical care without necessarily considering the evidence-base or clinical effectiveness of the tool. User expectations regarding developer responsiveness to their needs has implications for community-based participatory research and integrated knowledge translation. However, this expectation is incompatible with current mHealth funding structures.
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College students experience high levels of stress. Mindfulness meditation delivered via a mobile app may be an appealing, efficacious way to reduce stress in college students.
We aimed to test the ...initial efficacy and sustained effects of an 8-week mindfulness meditation mobile app-Calm-compared to a wait-list control on stress, mindfulness, and self-compassion in college students with elevated stress. We also explored the intervention's effect on health behaviors (ie, sleep disturbance, alcohol consumption binge drinking, physical activity, and healthy eating fruit and vegetable consumption) and the feasibility and acceptability of the app.
This study was a randomized, wait-list, control trial with assessments at baseline, postintervention (8 weeks), and at follow-up (12 weeks). Participants were eligible if they were current full-time undergraduate students and (1) at least 18 years of age, (2) scored ≥14 points on the Perceived Stress Scale, (3) owned a smartphone, (4) were willing to download the Calm app, (5) were willing to be randomized, and (7) were able to read and understand English. Participants were asked to meditate using Calm at least 10 minutes per day. A P value ≤.05 was considered statistically significant.
A total of 88 participants were included in the analysis. The mean age (SD) was 20.41 (2.31) years for the intervention group and 21.85 (6.3) years for the control group. There were significant differences in all outcomes (stress, mindfulness, and self-compassion) between the intervention and control groups after adjustment for covariates postintervention (all P<.04). These effects persisted at follow-up (all P<.03), except for the nonreacting subscale of mindfulness (P=.08). There was a significant interaction between group and time factors in perceived stress (P=.002), mindfulness (P<.001), and self-compassion (P<.001). Bonferroni posthoc tests showed significant within-group mean differences for perceived stress in the intervention group (P<.001), while there were no significant within-group mean differences in the control group (all P>.19). Similar results were found for mindfulness and self-compassion. Effect sizes ranged from moderate (0.59) to large (1.24) across all outcomes. A significant group×time interaction in models of sleep disturbance was found, but no significant effects were found for other health behaviors. The majority of students in the intervention group reported that Calm was helpful to reduce stress and stated they would use Calm in the future. The majority were satisfied using Calm and likely to recommend it to other college students. The intervention group participated in meditation for an average of 38 minutes/week during the intervention and 20 minutes/week during follow-up.
Calm is an effective modality to deliver mindfulness meditation in order to reduce stress and improve mindfulness and self-compassion in stressed college students. Our findings provide important information that can be applied to the design of future studies or mental health resources in university programs.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03891810; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03891810.
Physical activity helps people maintain a healthy weight and reduces the risk for several chronic diseases. Although this knowledge is widely recognized, adults and children in many countries around ...the world do not get recommended amounts of physical activity. Although many interventions are found to be ineffective at increasing physical activity or reaching inactive populations, there have been anecdotal reports of increased physical activity due to novel mobile games that embed game play in the physical world. The most recent and salient example of such a game is Pokémon Go, which has reportedly reached tens of millions of users in the United States and worldwide.
The objective of this study was to quantify the impact of Pokémon Go on physical activity.
We study the effect of Pokémon Go on physical activity through a combination of signals from large-scale corpora of wearable sensor data and search engine logs for 32,000 Microsoft Band users over a period of 3 months. Pokémon Go players are identified through search engine queries and physical activity is measured through accelerometers.
We find that Pokémon Go leads to significant increases in physical activity over a period of 30 days, with particularly engaged users (ie, those making multiple search queries for details about game usage) increasing their activity by 1473 steps a day on average, a more than 25% increase compared with their prior activity level (P<.001). In the short time span of the study, we estimate that Pokémon Go has added a total of 144 billion steps to US physical activity. Furthermore, Pokémon Go has been able to increase physical activity across men and women of all ages, weight status, and prior activity levels showing this form of game leads to increases in physical activity with significant implications for public health. In particular, we find that Pokémon Go is able to reach low activity populations, whereas all 4 leading mobile health apps studied in this work largely draw from an already very active population.
Mobile apps combining game play with physical activity lead to substantial short-term activity increases and, in contrast to many existing interventions and mobile health apps, have the potential to reach activity-poor populations. Future studies are needed to investigate potential long-term effects of these applications.
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Laboratory medicine is a domain which offers a unique opportunity to analyze objective patient laboratory data and enable ready communication to both healthcare workers as well as patients. In recent ...years, an increasing number of web-based and mobile applications has been developed to improve access to laboratory test information and test result interpretation. They range from simple apps that provide reference lab value information to complex medical diagnostics data management. As examples, the "eLab" developed by Tru-Solutions Inc. is a comprehensive medical diagnostic center and lab management software that provides a user friendly interface and access control. It is linked iMedDx.com to allow flexible patient search and selection and includes an eLab Dashboard on mobile/tablet, allowing patients and labs/hospitals access to lab reports online. The Davis's Laboratory & Diagnostic Tests medical app provides another useful app with a wide-breadth of tests, as well as guidance on how to counsel and collect tests. The app is available on multiple platforms including the iPhone/ iPad, Android and Blackberry. The "LabGear" is a medical lab reference app providing a pocket tool for medical laboratory test and is integrated with MedCalc with normal lab value reference information for over 200+ lab tests. There are several other medical apps that provide reference lab values including CALIPER, MedRef, Normal Lab Values, and Lab Tests. The CALIPER App has been developed in our laboratory for pediatricians, family physicians, and other healthcare workers worldwide. It is a user friendly and easy tool to assess a child's laboratory test results using the latest reference value database developed based on a study of thousands of healthy children and adolescents. The CALIPER apps allow pediatricians & family physicians to interpret laboratory test results for over 170 medical laboratory tests in children and adolescents using a comprehensive database of pediatric data.
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Purpose
The use of mobile phone applications (Apps) has modernised the conventional practice of medicine. The diagnostic ability of the current Apps in prostate specific antigen monitoring, and its ...diagnostic ability within prostate cancer (PCa) risk calculators have not yet been appraised. We aimed to review, rate and assess the everyday functionality, and utility of all the currently available PCa risk calculator Apps.
Methods
A systematic search on iTunes, Google Play Store, Blackberry World and Windows Apps Store, was performed on 23/11/2017, using the search term ‘prostate cancer risk calculator’. After applying the exclusion criteria, each App was individually assessed and rated using pre-set criteria and grading was performed using the validated uMARS scale.
Results
In total, 83 Apps were retrieved. After applying our exclusion criteria, only 9 Apps were relevant, with 2 duplicated, and the remaining 7 were suitable for critical review. Data sizes ranged from 414 kb to 10.1 Mb. The cost of the Apps ranged from South African rand (ZAR) 0.00 to ZAR 29.99. The overall mean category uMARS scores ranged from 2.8/5 to 4.5/5. Apps such as Rotterdam Prostate Cancer Risk Calculator, Coral—Prostate Cancer Nomogram Calculator and CPC Risk Calculator, performed the best.
Conclusions
The current PCa risk calculator mobile Apps available may be beneficial in counselling the concerned at risk patient. These Apps have potential to assist both the patient and the urologist alike. The PCa risk calculator App ‘predictability’ may be further enhanced by the incorporation of newly validated risk factors and predictors for PCa.
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This paper examines the customer experience in relation to retailers' m-commerce mobile applications. The research aims to understand the variables capable of influencing the customer experience ...during use of retailers' m-commerce mobile applications, resulting in the development of a Mobile Application Customer Experience Model (MACE). Through the use of structural equation modelling on a sample of 1024 consumers, the findings of the research highlight the importance of utilitarian factors in driving an effective customer experience. In contrast to the e-commerce environment with regard to flow theory, this research highlights that customers are conscious of the length of time spent completing an activity on an m-commerce mobile application, thus should customers perceive to spend longer than necessary using the application, it will result in a negative customer experience. Additionally, the findings illustrate that gender and smartphone screen-size play a moderating role on the customer experience. The findings provide key managerial implications for retailers on how to provide an excellent customer experience through mobile applications as a service delivery channel.
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Mobile Application Usability Hoehle, Hartmut; Venkatesh, Viswanath
MIS quarterly,
06/2015, Volume:
39, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This paper presents a mobile application usability conceptualization and survey instrument following the 10-step procedure recommended by MacKenzie et al. (2011). Specifically, we adapted Apple’s ...user experience guidelines to develop our conceptualization of mobile application usability that we then developed into 19 first-order constructs that formed 6 second-order constructs. To achieve our objective, we collected four datasets: content validity (n = 318), pretest (n = 440), validation (n = 408), and cross-validation (n = 412). The nomological validity of this instrument was established by examining its impact on two outcomes: continued intention to use and mobile application loyalty. We found that the constructs that represented our mobile application usability conceptualization were good predictors of both outcomes and compared favorably to an existing instrument based on Microsoft’s usability guidelines. In addition to being an exemplar of the recent procedure of MacKenzie et al. to validate an instrument, this work provides a rich conceptualization of an instrument for mobile application usability that can serve as a springboard for future work to understand the impacts of mobile application usability and can be used as a guide to design effective mobile applications.
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