Department of Biomedical Informatics, Center for Preventive Medicine and Digital Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
Institute of Medical Informatics, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany.
JMIR Hum Factors. 2023 Nov 1;10:e51090. doi: 10.2196/51090.
Good usability is important for the adoption and continued use of mobile health (mHealth) apps. In particular, high usability can support intuitive use by patients, which improves compliance and increases the app's effectiveness. However, many usability studies do not use adequate tools to measure perceived usability. The mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ) was developed specifically for end users in a medical context. MAUQ is a relatively new but increasingly used questionnaire to evaluate mHealth apps, but it is not yet available in German.
This study aims to translate MAUQ into German and determine its internal consistency, reliability, and construct validity.
This validation study was conducted as part of a usability evaluation project for an mHealth app used as a therapy support tool during breast cancer chemotherapy. MAUQ was translated into German through a rigorous forward-backward translation process, ensuring semantic and conceptual equivalence. Patient responses to MAUQ and System Usability Scale (SUS) were analyzed for validation. Descriptive analysis was performed for the MAUQ subscales and SUS standard scores. Significance tests and correlation coefficients assessed the relationship between the SUS and MAUQ results, confirming construct validity. Internal consistency was assessed for item reliability and consistency in measuring the target construct. Free-text questions assessed translation comprehensibility, with responses analyzed descriptively and qualitatively using content analysis.
In this study, 133 participants responded to the questionnaire, and the validation analysis showed substantially positive correlations between the overall MAUQ score and its subscales: ease of use (r=0.56), interface and satisfaction (r=0.75), and usefulness (r=0.83). These findings support the construct validity of MAUQ and emphasize the importance of these subscales in assessing the usability of the Enable app. The correlation coefficients ranging from 0.39 to 0.68 for the items further validate the questionnaire by aligning with the overall score and capturing the intended concept. The high internal consistency reliability of MAUQ (Cronbach α=.81) and its subscales further enhances the instrument's robustness in accurately evaluating the usability of mHealth apps.
We successfully validated the German translation of the MAUQ for stand-alone apps using a standardized approach in a cohort of patients with breast cancer. In our validation study, MAUQ exhibited strong internal consistency reliability (Cronbach α=.81) across its subscales, indicating reliable and consistent measurement. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation (P<.001) was found between the subscales and the overall score, supporting their consistent measurement of the intended construct. Therefore, MAUQ can be considered a reliable instrument for assessing the usability of mHealth apps among German-speaking adults. The availability of the German version of MAUQ will help other researchers in conducting usability studies of mHealth apps in German-speaking cohorts and allow for international comparability of their results.
良好的可用性对于移动健康（mHealth）应用的采用和持续使用非常重要。特别是，高可用性可以支持患者的直观使用，从而提高依从性并增加应用的效果。然而，许多可用性研究并未使用足够的工具来衡量感知可用性。mHealth App 可用性问卷（MAUQ）是专为医疗背景下的最终用户开发的。MAUQ 是一种越来越常用的评估 mHealth 应用的新问卷，但尚未有德语版本。
本研究旨在将 MAUQ 翻译成德语，并确定其内部一致性、可靠性和构念效度。
本验证研究是作为乳腺癌化疗期间作为治疗支持工具使用的 mHealth 应用的可用性评估项目的一部分进行的。通过严格的正向和反向翻译过程将 MAUQ 翻译成德语，确保语义和概念等效。分析 MAUQ 和系统可用性量表（SUS）对患者的反应以进行验证。对 MAUQ 子量表和 SUS 标准分数进行描述性分析。通过显著性检验和相关系数评估 SUS 和 MAUQ 结果之间的关系，确认构念效度。通过项目的可靠性和一致性来评估内部一致性，以测量目标结构。使用内容分析对自由文本问题进行了翻译理解度的分析。
在这项研究中，有 133 名参与者对问卷做出了回应，验证性分析表明 MAUQ 总分与其子量表之间存在显著的正相关：易用性（r=0.56）、界面和满意度（r=0.75）和有用性（r=0.83）。这些发现支持 MAUQ 的构念效度，并强调了这些子量表在评估 Enable 应用的可用性方面的重要性。项目的相关系数在 0.39 到 0.68 之间，进一步验证了问卷的有效性，与总分保持一致，并捕捉到了预期的概念。MAUQ 及其子量表具有较高的内部一致性信度（Cronbach α=.81），进一步增强了该工具在准确评估 mHealth 应用可用性方面的稳健性。
我们使用乳腺癌患者队列中的标准化方法成功验证了 MAUQ 德语译本的独立性应用。在我们的验证研究中，MAUQ 各子量表的内部一致性信度较高（Cronbach α=.81），表明测量可靠且一致。此外，子量表和总分之间存在显著的正相关（P<.001），支持其对预期结构的一致测量。因此，MAUQ 可被视为评估德语成年人使用 mHealth 应用的可靠工具。MAUQ 德语版的可用性将有助于其他研究人员在德语队列中进行 mHealth 应用的可用性研究，并允许其结果具有国际可比性。
