Mobile Health Fitness Applications: A Quantitative Analysis of Features and Barriers to Routine Use and Data Sharing Acceptability (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Mobile health (mHealth) fitness applications are increasingly being used for research and physical activity promotion; however, which features facilitate and impede routine engagement, a known predictor of application retention, are not well understood. OBJECTIVE To understand facilitators and barriers in the use of mobile applications relating to physical activity promotion. METHODS We distributed a pan-Canadian online questionnaire via the behavioral research platform Prolific.co to evaluate what features associated with the use and routine engagement (i.e., daily, or weekly use) of mHealth fitness applications, and attitudes about data sharing. Binary logistic regression was used to quantify the association between these endpoints and exploratory factors such as the perceived utility of various mHealth application features. RESULTS The survey received 694 responses. Most people were women (62%), the median age was 28 (range: 18–78), and most people reported current use of an mHealth fitness application (48%). The perceived importance of personal health (OR 2.40; 95%·CI 1.34–4.50) was the factor most associated with the current use of an mHealth fitness application. The feature most associated with routine engagement was the ability to track progress toward a goal (OR 5.10, 95%·CI 2.73–9.61) while the most significant barrier was the absence of goal customization features (OR 0.44, 95%·CI 0.25–0.81). The acceptance of sharing health data for research was high (56%) and privacy concerns did not significantly affect routine engagement (OR 0.81, 95%·CI 0.40–1.77). Results were consistent across race and gender. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrate that mHealth applications have the potential to be scaled across populations. Optimizing applications to improve self-monitoring and personalization could increase routine engagement and thus user retention and intervention effectiveness.

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