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The use of mobile health applications for the prevention of non-communicable diseases

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Abstract

Analyzation of the use of Mobile Health (mHealth) applications in different user groups in order to evaluate the potential that mHealth provides for the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCD). Cross-sectional online survey with 1119 participants in Switzerland. Forty percent used mHealth applications. Most participants used mHealth to promote their health (70%), influence a specific aspect of their health (59%) and monitor their fitness level (61%). mHealth was used more often by people suffering from NCD (p<0.05) and participants older than fifty years did not use mHealth less than younger participants (p>0.05). Trust in the collected data was high (93%), however, participants rarely relied on scientific recommendation for choosing mHealth applications (14%) and only the minority discussed the data with a physician (19%). The majority saw advantages in using mHealth for the prevention of NCD (62%) and providing patients with the possibility to control their lifestyle changes (59%). mHealth is used across all age groups and significantly more often by people suffering from NCD. However, the collected data is not evaluated systematically. We suggest the inclusion of mHealth into the health care plan to increase patient empowerment to beneficially affect the development of NCD.

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Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Internal Medicine, Hospital of Thun, Krankenhausstrasse 12, 3600, Thun, Switzerland

    Martina Zangger

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Women’s Hospital, Bern, Switzerland

    Cornelia Wälchli & Petra Stute

  3. Untere Bockgasse 5, Würzburg, Germany

    Ulrich Stefenelli

Authors
  1. Martina Zangger
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  2. Cornelia Wälchli
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  3. Ulrich Stefenelli
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  4. Petra Stute
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Contributions

MZ: Data analysis, manuscript writing. CW: Data collection. US: Data management. PS: Project development, manuscript editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martina Zangger.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

As this survey was both voluntary and anonymous, approval by the cantonal ethic committee was not necessary. A jurisdictional inquiry at the ethical committee confirmed this (KEK Req-2018-00731).

Consent to participate and for publication

The survey was voluntary, all participants were aware of participating in a study.

Informed consent

As this survey was both voluntary and anonymous, obtaining of informed consent was not necessary. A jurisdictional inquiry at the ethical committee confirmed this (KEK Req-2018-00731).

Conflict of interest:

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Zangger, M., Wälchli, C., Stefenelli, U. et al. The use of mobile health applications for the prevention of non-communicable diseases. Health Technol. 11, 585–593 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12553-021-00536-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12553-021-00536-8

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