Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Louise Benjamin / This study examined how health apps influence college students’ health behavior, because about 50 percent of college students do not comply with physical activity recommendations. Because mobile applications (apps) are popular among college students, they hold promise for promoting behavior change in physical activity. This research was conducted through an online questionnaire distributed to a randomized sample of 18-35 year-old Mid-Western university students. Questionnaire data were analyzed from 237 surveys using Pearson’s Product Moment correlation (r) and Pearson’s chi-square test (χ2). This study showed that college students generally perceived health apps to be useful with slightly over half of the participants using health apps (52.3 percent). Bivariate analysis indicated positive attitudes towards health apps and positive attitudes towards physical activity (p < .001). The amount of experience using health apps yielded a positive relationship with attitudes towards physical activity (p = .008). In addition, having strong beliefs towards physical activity indicated a positive correlation with engaging in physical activity (p < .001). This study provides valuable information regarding attitudes towards health apps and the intention to use health apps for physical activity. While health apps do not trigger an intention to do physical activity, having “belief strength” and positive attitudes towards physical activity increases the likelihood for engaging in physical activity. Health communication intervention strategies and health practitioners can use this information to educate individuals about the advantages for their health that can be associated with using health apps.

The recent proliferation and adoption of smartphones has resulted in the widespread use of mobile applications. Mobile applications, or apps, are small programs that are designed to run on smartphones and mobile devices for providing information on a wide range of topics addressing the varied needs of an individual. Health apps are one of the more popular categories of apps that are used extensively among people who are interested in health and fitness. Apps in this category focus on topics such as diet, nutrition, fitness, and weight loss. This study examined popular, free weight loss health applications available in Apple iTunes (iOS) and Google Play (Android) to identify their characteristics and adherence to national health guidelines. A total of 89 weight loss apps across both platforms were selected for the content analysis. Each app was coded to examine the general characteristics and the presence of features such as interactivity, adherence to evidence-informed practices and health guidelines, user engagement, and credibility of health information. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were calculated once the coding was done. Perhaps the most important finding of the study was that no single app completely adhered to all the health guidelines or evidence-informed practices outlined by national health agencies. However, there were some apps that showed high levels of adherence in certain categories. The study further indicated that weight loss apps are designed more for people interested in physical fitness and training and less for people who are trying diet and nutrition to lose weight. A majority of the apps analyzed did not adhere to evidence-informed practices, did not follow the clinical 10-step guidelines for treatment of weight loss recommended by national health agencies, and failed to meet HON (Health on the Net) standards for credibility. E-mail was the preferred form of communication present in all the apps, and interactive features were under utilized by app developers. This study found that mobile app developers make minimal use of theory-driven components in their app design. The provision to track user progress was the most employed user engagement (66%), followed by facilitating goal setting (53%), and self-monitoring (51%). Of all the 89 apps analyzed, the study found only one app with health professional input, seriously highlighting the need for involvement of health professionals in app design and development. Weight loss through mobile apps has a lot of potential for growth in terms of incorporating interactive features, theory-driven content, evidence-informed practices, and credibility of health information. While there is much emphasis on improving the functionality and features of apps, it is also important that health professionals with an understanding and knowledge of national health guidelines need to be actively involved in developing apps that are tailored, appropriate, and relevant for those interested in losing weight. There needs to be more initiatives where app developers, health professionals and agencies, avid app users, nongovernmental organizations, and policy makers come together and help address some of the issues highlighted in this study.

abstract: Mobile apps have improved human lifestyle in various aspects ranging from instant messaging to tele-health. In the current app development paradigm, apps are being developed individually and agnostic of each other. The goal of this thesis is to allow a new world where multiple apps communicate with each other to achieve synergistic benefits. To enable integration between apps, manual communication between developers is needed, which can be problematic on many levels. In order to promote app integration, a systematic approach towards data sharing between multiple apps is essential. However, current approaches to app integration require large code modifications to reap the benefits of shared data such as requiring developers to provide APIs or use large, invasive middlewares. In this thesis, a data sharing framework was developed providing a non-invasive interface between mobile apps for data sharing and integration. A separate app acts as a registry to allow apps to register database tables to be shared and query this information. Two health monitoring apps were developed to evaluate the sharing framework and different methods of data integration between apps to promote synergistic feedback. The health monitoring apps have shown non-invasive solutions can provide data sharing functionality without large code modifications and manual communication between developers. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Computer Science 2014

Bakgrund: Antalet hälsoapplikationer växer för varje dag och det finns ett behov av att säkerställa kvaliteten på dessa, för att skapa riktlinjer för utvecklare, stödja användarna och tydliggöra vad vårdgivare kan rekommendera till sina patienter. Syfte: Syftet med detta arbete var att undersöka synen på kvalitetsmärkningar och krav som kan ställas på hälsoapplikationer ur kvalitets- och säkerhetsaspekt, med perspektiv utifrån myndigheter och appleverantörer, vårdsektor och app-användare. Material och metod: Studien har använt sig av en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med semistrukturerade intervjuer, där totalt sjutton intervjuer genomförts med representanter från tre olika myndigheter, SIS, app-leverantörer, vårdpersonal och app-användare. Alla intervjuer transkriberades ordagrant, bearbetades med hjälp av kodning, kategorisering och analys för att se mönster, likheter och variationer. Slutligen delades detta in i teman som presenterar dessa mönster i resultatet. Resultat: Alla parter är positivt inställda till en kvalitetsmärkning på hälsoapplikationer, även om kännedomen kring det pågående standard-arbetet varierade hos de tillfrågade. Det finns en förväntan både hos användare och inom vården om en ökad användning av hälsoapplikationer i framtiden och möjligheten att dela hälsodata. Vårdpersonalen är restriktiva till vad de vågar rekommendera för hälsoappar idag, men hoppas och tror att en märkning kan förändra det. De anser att säkerhet, integritet och kvalitet är viktigt, men likväl design, användarupplevelse och spelifiering. Myndigheterna och leverantörerna upplever en låg kontroll kring att ställa krav själva eller ha mandat till förändring inom området. Slutsats: Samtliga yrkesroller är enade om att det är en politisk fråga och att juridiska trösklar behöver ses över när det gäller krav, främja nya digitala lösningar och innovation inom friskvård och sjukvård. En ny standard upplevs vara i rätt riktning och inkludera det mesta som önskats, men frågan består i var ansvaret kommer ligga över att den följs, hur respektive parter ska förhålla sig till den, andra krav och kvarhållande ”föråldrade” lagstiftningar. En genomgående röd tråd är uppmaningen om tydlighet och önskan om ökad politisk drivkraft inom området.

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The aim of the study is to explore three healthcare apps, Numa, Ella, and Leia Health, and their affordances in digital healthcare. By applying discourse analysis and discursive interface analysis as primary methods, the study investigates reward and motivation features within these apps, aiming to uncover the norms and assumptions embedded in their interfaces. Theoretical concepts such as motivation affordance, technology affordances, and sociomaterialism are used as frameworks to understand and analyze the results. The interface analysis provides insights into how various affordances, such as functional, cognitive, sensory, and collaborative, shape the user experience in healthcare apps. The results offer an overview and understanding of how user behaviors are influenced by the structure, design, and features of health apps through their digital interfaces, illustrating how the apps provide users with support and information.

Aus der Studie und den Ergebnissen können wertvolle Impulse abgeleitet werden. Es darf nicht aus den Augen verloren werden, dass junge Menschen mit traumatisierenden Erfahrungen spezifische Perspektiven (Kenny, Dooley, & Fitzgerald, 2016) und Bedenken in Bezug auf die Vertrauenswürdigkeit von KI (Grasser, 2020) haben können. Demzufolge ist wichtig, die subjektive Sicherheit sowie andere Einflussgrößen auf die Nutzung von KI und E-Health Angeboten zu kennen und in Betracht zu ziehen. Ferner zeigen Studien, dass E-Health Literacy (E-Health-Kompetenz) bei minderjährigen Geflüchteten eher gering ist (Bergmann, Nilsson, Dahlberg, Jaensson, & Wångdahl, 2021) und Forschung zur Erhöhung des Uptake von qualitativ hochwertigen Angeboten dringend benötigt wird. Die Integration der Zielgruppe kann jedoch nur dann gelingen, wenn die E-Health-Apps als wichtig erkannt werden und bei ihrer Umsetzung darauf geachtet wird, dass sie praktikabel sind. [Aus: Zusammenfassung]

The act of people collecting their health data through health apps on their smartphones is becoming increasingly popular. Still, it is difficult for healthcare providers to use this patient-generated health data since health apps cannot easily share its data with the health care providers’ Electronic Health Records (EHR). Simultaneously, it is becoming increasingly popular to use low-code platforms for software development. This thesis explored using low-code platforms to create applications intended to collect patient-generated health data and send it to EHRs by creating a web application prototype with the low-code platforms Mendix and Better EHR Studio. During the web application prototype development, the developer conducted a diary to capture their impressions of Mendix to show how a developer experiences developing in a low-code platform compared to traditional programming. The result shows that it is impractical to create applications intended to collect patient-generated health data with the two low-code platforms chosen. The analysis of the conducted diary showed that using a low-code platform is straightforward but also challenging for an experienced software developer.