Department of Nursing science, College of Life & Health Sciences, Hoseo University, Asan, Korea.
Interdisciplinary Program of Medical Informatics, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2019 Jul 1;26(7):655-666. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocz019.
Most healthcare providers are reluctant to use health apps for healthcare because there is no rigorous way of choosing the best app for their patient or consumer. Accordingly, we developed a new method of app selection that fully considers target users' needs. This study verified whether health apps selected based on target users' needs can influence health-related factors.
We conducted a randomized control trial of women with dysmenorrhea and premenstrual syndrome using App A (the best app selected using the new method) and App B (the app with the highest number of users worldwide). The intervention was performed over 4 months to include at least 3 menstrual cycles.
Sixty-one app users completed the 16-week intervention. While users rated both apps as higher in quality than previously used menstrual apps, only App A users showed significant improvements in overall satisfaction, app outcome expectancy, the number of days with records, app social influence, intent to recommend, and the possibility of behavioral or cognitive changes in their symptom management. The number of menus used increased over time. While the app self-efficacy and the number of relief methods did not significantly differ between groups, they still showed an increase in App A users.
When a menstrual app reflected users' needs, they recorded their symptoms more often and reported higher app quality, satisfaction, and intention to recommend. This study can not only benefit the selection of menstrual apps, but also confirm that mobile health apps can improve health-related factors.
由于缺乏严格的方法来为患者或消费者选择最佳的应用程序，大多数医疗保健提供者都不愿意使用健康应用程序来进行医疗保健。因此，我们开发了一种新的应用程序选择方法，该方法充分考虑了目标用户的需求。本研究验证了基于目标用户需求选择的健康应用程序是否可以影响与健康相关的因素。
我们对患有痛经和经前期综合征的女性进行了一项随机对照试验，使用 App A（使用新方法选择的最佳应用程序）和 App B（全球用户最多的应用程序）。干预措施持续 4 个月，包括至少 3 个月经周期。
61 名应用程序使用者完成了 16 周的干预。虽然用户对这两款应用程序的评价都高于之前使用的月经应用程序，但只有 App A 用户在总体满意度、应用程序结果预期、记录天数、应用程序社会影响力、推荐意愿以及症状管理方面行为或认知改变的可能性方面显示出显著改善。随着时间的推移，使用的菜单数量增加。虽然应用程序自我效能和缓解方法的数量在两组之间没有显著差异，但 App A 用户的这些指标仍有所增加。
当月经应用程序反映了用户的需求时，他们会更频繁地记录自己的症状，并报告更高的应用程序质量、满意度和推荐意愿。本研究不仅可以受益于月经应用程序的选择，还可以证实移动健康应用程序可以改善与健康相关的因素。
