Title: A Cross Sectional Study to find out Awareness about use of Health Applications on smart phones among the General Population of Indore
Authors: Dr Deepa Raghunath, Dr Akansha Kalra, Dr Sanjay Dixit, Dr Shagun Rampuria, Dr Shefali Pawar, Dr Shubham Thori
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v6i5.122
Abstract
Background: The term mHealth (mobile health) is the use of mobile phones and communication devices to educate consumers about preventive health care services. Health is important because it makes healthcare practices accessible to the public through mobile communication technologies in a variety of ways.
Objectives
- To find out the awareness and knowledge of people about the use of health applications in smart phones in the urban population of Indore.
- To find out the duration and regularity of use of mHealth apps.
- To find out the benefits of mHealth app among the people of Indore city.
Methodology: A community based cross sectional house to house survey was conducted among randomly selected 150 residents of Indore city. People above 15 years of age using Android and iOS phones and giving consent were included in the study. A pretested semi structured questionnaire was used. Data was entered in excel sheet and analysed using SPSS software.
Results: The most common age group of the participants was 17-26 years (68%) in our study. It was found that 73% of the participants were aware about the health applications and most of them knew about applications related to weight loss (54.8%) and availability of health facilities (43%). Only 39% participants were using heath applications out of which the most widely used were apps for finding nearby doctor (23%), followed by apps for physical fitness and yoga (21%). Among the ones using the health applications, 95% thought that the use of health applications have benefitted them by providing better self-care and health information. Although many participants thought that apps are beneficial, only few were using apps regularly and entering data on time and few were referring to a doctor or a dietician if they were guided by the app to do so. Although a large percentage of study population were aware of health applications, only a smaller group were using health apps. Most of the participants stopped using health applications due to lack of interest, too much of time consumption, confusing to use and cost factor.