Smartphone Apps for Measuring Human Health and Climate Change Co-Benefits: A Comparison and Quality Rating of Available Apps

Sullivan, R.; Marsh, Samantha; Halvarsson, Jakob; Holdsworth, Michelle; Waterlander, Wilma; Poelman, Maartje P.; Salmond, Jennifer; Christian, Hayley; Koh, Lenny; Cade, Janet; Spence, John C.; Woodward, Alistair; Maddison, Ralph

doi:10.2196/mhealth.5931

Cited by 32 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The MARS tool, generalized to primary prevention apps [44], has been used in several expert reviews of apps for a variety of behaviors such as drink driving [45], sustainable food consumption [46], medication adherence [47], mental health and mindfulness [48], quality of life [49], rheumatoid arthritis [50], weight loss related to smoking cessation [51], and weight management [30]. The user version, originally tested on 2 harm minimization and affect management apps [43], assessed the apps according to the same domains.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Quality of Mobile Phone Apps for Weight Management: User-Centered Study With Employees From a Lebanese University

Bardus¹,

Ali²,

Demachkieh³

et al. 2019

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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Background Evaluating the quality of mobile health apps for weight loss and weight management is important to understand whether these can be used for obesity prevention and treatment. Recent reviews call for more research on multidimensional aspects of app quality, especially involving end users, as there are already many expert reviews on this domain. However, no quantitative study has investigated how laypersons see popular apps for weight management and perceive different dimensions of app quality. Objective This study aimed to explore how laypersons evaluate the quality of 6 free weight management apps ( My Diet Coach , SparkPeople , Lark , MyFitnessPal , MyPlate , and My Diet Diary ), which achieved the highest quality ratings in a related and recent expert review. Methods A user-centered study was conducted with 36 employees of a Lebanese university. Participants enrolled in the study on a rolling basis between October 2016 and March 2017. Participants were randomly assigned an app to use for 2 weeks. App quality was evaluated at the end of the trial period using the Mobile App Rating Scale user version (uMARS). uMARS assesses the dimensions of engagement , functionality , aesthetics , information , and subjective quality on 5-point scales. Internal consistency and interrater agreement were examined. The associations between uMARS scores and users’ demographic characteristics were also explored using nonparametric tests. Analyses were completed in November 2017. Results Overall, the 6 apps were of moderately good quality (median uMARS score 3.6, interquartile range [IQR] 0.3). The highest total uMARS scores were achieved by Lark (mean 4.0 [SD 0.5]) and MyPlate (mean 3.8 [SD 0.4]), which also achieved the highest subjective quality scores ( Lark : mean 3.3 [SD 1.4]; MyPlate : mean 3.3 [SD 0.8]). Functionality was the domain with the highest rating (median 3.9, IQR 0.3), followed by aesthetics (median 3.7, IQR 0.5), information (median 3.7, IQR 0.1), and engagement (median 3.3, IQR 0.2). Subjective quality was judged low (median 2.5, IQR 0.9). Overall, subjective quality was strongly and positively related ( P <.001) with total uMARS score (ρ=.75), engagement (ρ=.68), information , and aesthetics (ρ=.60) but not functionality ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Quality of Mobile Phone Apps for Weight Management: User-Centered Study With Employees From a Lebanese University

Bardus¹,

Ali²,

Demachkieh³

et al. 2019

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…12 Agency for Health Quality and Assessment of Catalonia (AQuAS), Barcelona, Spain. 13 Obukhov Institute for Atmospheric Physics, Moscow, Russia. 14 Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.…”

Section: Abbreviationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital transformation of health and care to sustain Planetary Health: The MASK proof-of-concept for airway diseases—POLLAR symposium under the auspices of Finland’s Presidency of the EU, 2019 and MACVIA-France, Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD, WH0) demonstration project, Reference Site Collaborative Network of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing

Bousquet

Antó

Haahtela

et al. 2020

Clin Transl Allergy

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In December 2019, a conference entitled "Europe That Protects: Safeguarding Our Planet, Safeguarding Our Health" was held in Helsinki. It was co-organized by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, the Finnish Environment Institute and the European Commission, under the auspices of Finland's Presidency of the EU. As a side event, a symposium organized as the final POLLAR (Impact of air POLLution on Asthma and Rhinitis) meeting explored the digital transformation of health and care to sustain planetary health in airway diseases. The Finnish Allergy Programme collaborates with MASK (Mobile Airways Sentinel NetworK) and can be considered as a proof-of-concept to impact

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“…We thus extended this search by using Google Search Engine to find other relevant apps or relevant projects. As a benefit, this broader approach also allows researchers to find potential apps that are only available in specific regions [21]. Table 1 shows the criteria used to find the relevant smartphone apps.…”

Section: Systematic Review Of Smartphone Apps and Scholarly Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Allowing Users to Benefit from Tree Shading: Using a Smartphone App to Allow Adaptive Route Planning during Extreme Heat

Deilami

Rudner

Butt

et al. 2020

Forests

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This paper presents the outcomes from a joint research project that aims to develop a smartphone application/online platform to model the most thermally comfortable active transport route to a planned destination using heat information and tree shading (Shadeway). Here, we provide a summary of our systematic review of academic literature and applications from the Google Play and Apple App Store, to identify current knowledge about personal adaptation strategies when navigating travel in cities during high temperatures. The review identifies that there is a lack of attention regarding the use of smartphone applications to address urban thermal comfort for active transport by government and private industry. We then present the initial results of original research from three community focus groups and an online survey that elicited participants’ opinions about Shadeways in the City of Greater Bendigo (CoGB), Australia. The results clearly show the need for better management of Shadeways in CoGB. For example, 52.3% of the routes traveled by participants suffer from either no or poor levels of shading, and 53 of the shaded areas were located along routes that also experience heavy traffic, which can have an adverse effect on perceptions and actual safety. It is expected that this study will contribute to improve understanding of the methods used to identify adaptation strategies to increasingly extreme temperatures.

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Smartphone Apps for Measuring Human Health and Climate Change Co-Benefits: A Comparison and Quality Rating of Available Apps

Cited by 32 publications

References 32 publications

Assessing the Quality of Mobile Phone Apps for Weight Management: User-Centered Study With Employees From a Lebanese University

Assessing the Quality of Mobile Phone Apps for Weight Management: User-Centered Study With Employees From a Lebanese University

Allowing Users to Benefit from Tree Shading: Using a Smartphone App to Allow Adaptive Route Planning during Extreme Heat

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