Mobile apps for health exist in large numbers today, but oftentimes, consumers do not continue to use them after a brief period of initial usage, are averse toward using them at all, or are unaware that such apps even exist. The purpose of our study was to examine and qualitatively determine the design and content elements of health apps that facilitate or impede usage from the users’ perceptive. In 2014, six focus groups and five individual interviews were conducted in the Midwest region of the U.S. with a mixture of 44 smartphone owners of various social economic status. The participants were asked about their general and health specific mobile app usage. They were then shown specific features of exemplar health apps and prompted to discuss their perceptions. The focus groups and interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using the software NVivo. Inductive thematic analysis was adopted to analyze the data and nine themes were identified: 1) barriers to adoption of health apps, 2) barriers to continued use of health apps, 3) motivators, 4) information and personalized guidance, 5) tracking for awareness and progress, 6) credibility, 7) goal setting, 8) reminders, and 9) sharing personal information. The themes were mapped to theories for interpretation of the results. This qualitative research with a diverse pool of participants extended previous research on challenges and opportunities of health apps. The findings provide researchers, app designers, and health care providers insights on how to develop and evaluate health apps from the users’ perspective.

Background: Health and fitness applications (apps) are one of the major app categories in the current mobile app market. Few studies have examined this area from the users' perspective. This study adopted the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) Model to examine the predictors of the users' intention to adopt health and fitness apps. Materials and Methods: A survey ( n =317) was conducted with college-aged smartphone users at a Midwestern university in the United States. Results: Performance expectancy, hedonic motivations, price value, and habit were significant predictors of users' intention of continued usage of health and fitness apps. However, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions were not found to predict users' intention of continued usage of health and fitness apps. Conclusions: This study extends the UTATU2 Model to the mobile apps domain and provides health professions, app designers, and marketers with the insights of user experience in terms of continuously using health and fitness apps.

Smartphones offer multimedia convergence in a single device, ubiquitous access to media, and constant connections with others. The rapid rise of smartphone use calls for more scholarly attention paid to users’ media usage and time expenditure. This study aims to (a) understand smartphone usage patterns by examining time spent using smartphones and task switching between mobile applications (apps), and (b) test the validity of self-reported measures of these behaviors by comparing self-reports with log data from the smartphone. Data were collected from 50 participants over 1 week. Results show that on average participants spent 2 hours 39 minutes on their smartphone and made 101 app switches per day. Among other findings, social networking was the most used app category, age was a significant demographic factor, and participants, especially heavy smartphone users, overestimated their mobile app usage. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Journal of Medical Internet Research - International Scientific Journal for Medical Research, Information and Communication on the Internet

We have witnessed an increasing amount of science podcasts, and it has emerged as an important venue for science communication. From a strategic science communication perspective, this study investigated how science podcasters view science communication–related goals and objectives, as well as the tactics they use in producing science communication content based on the theory of planned behavior. A survey (N = 147) with science podcasters showed that they see excitement and interest in science as their most prioritized objective and present the value of science over time. In addition, our results showed that podcasters frequently use communication tactics, but it may not have resulted from planned strategic communication action. The findings of this study provide initial insight into podcasters’ views and practice as part of the science communication effort.

Background: Persuasion knowledge, commonly referred to as advertising literacy, is a cognitive dimension that embraces recognition of advertising, its source and audience, and understanding of advertisers’ persuasive and selling intents as well as tactics. There is little understanding of users’ awareness of organizations that develop or sponsor mobile health (mHealth) apps, especially in light of personal data privacy. Persuasion knowledge or recognition of a supporting organization’s presence, characteristics, competencies, intents, and persuasion tactics are crucial to investigate because app users have the right to know about entities that support apps and make informed decisions about app usage. The abundance of free consumer mHealth apps, especially those in the area of fitness, often makes it difficult for users to identify apps’ dual purposes, which may be related to not only helping the public manage health but also promoting the supporting organization itself and collecting users’ information for further consumer targeting by third parties. Objective: This study aims to investigate smartphone users’ awareness of mHealth apps’ affiliations with 3 different types of supporting organizations (commercial, government, and nonprofit); differences in users’ persuasion knowledge and mHealth app quality and credibility evaluations related to each of the 3 organization types; and users’ coping mechanisms for dealing with personal information management within consumer mHealth apps. Methods: In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 25 smartphone users from a local community in midwestern United States. Interviews were thematically analyzed using inductive and deductive approaches. Results: Participants indicated that their awareness of and interest in mHealth app–supporting organizations were secondary to the app’s health management functions. After being probed, participants showed a high level of persuasion knowledge regarding the types of app-supporting organizations and their promotional intents. They thought that commercial companies sponsored mHealth apps mostly as entertainment tools, whereas noncommercial entities sponsored mHealth apps for users’ education. They assigned self-promotional motives to commercial organizations; however, they associated commercial mHealth apps with good quality and functioning. Noncommercial entities were perceived as more credible. Participants were concerned about losing control over personal information within mHealth apps supported by different organizations. They used alternative digital identities to protect themselves from privacy invasion and advertising spam. They were willing to trade some personal information for high-quality commercial mHealth apps. There was a sense of fatalism in discussing privacy risks linked to mHealth app usage, and some participants did not perceive the risks to be serious. Conclusions: The discussion of and recommendations for the safe and ethical use of mHealth apps associated with organizations’ promotional strategies and personal data protection are provided to ensure users’ awareness of and enhanced control over digitalized personal information flows. The theoretical implications are discussed in the context of the Persuasion Knowledge Model and dual-processing theories.