JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

A large number of mobile health (mHealth) apps have been created to help users to manage their health or receive health care services. Many of these mHealth apps have proven to be helpful for maintaining or improving their users’ health. However, many people still choose not to use mHealth apps or only use them for a short period of time. One of the reasons behind this lack of use is the concern for their health information security and privacy.

Objective:

The goal of this project was to determine the relationship between users’ characteristics and their security and privacy concerns, and then to identify desired security features in mHealth apps which could reduce these concerns.

Methods:

A questionnaire was designed and validated by the research team. This questionnaire was then used to determine mobile app users’ security and privacy concerns regarding personal health data in mHealth apps as well as the security features most users desire. A semi-structured interview was used to identify barriers to and facilitators of adopting mHealth apps.

Results:

In this study, 117 randomly selected study participants from a large pool took part in the study and provided responses to the validated questionnaire and the semi-structured interview questions. The results indicate that most study participants did have concerns about their privacy when using mHealth apps. They also expressed their preferences regarding several security features in mHealth apps, such as regular password updates, remote wipe, user consent, and access control. An association between their demographic characteristics and their concerns and preferences in security and privacy was identified; however, in most cases, the differences among the different demographic groups were not statistically significant, except for a few very specific aspects. These study participants also indicated the cost of apps and lack of security features in mHealth apps were barriers for adoption, while having free apps, strong but easy to use security features, and clear user protection privacy policies might encourage them to use mHealth apps in their health management.

Conclusions:

This questionnaire and interview study verified the security and privacy concerns of mHealth app users, identified the desired security and privacy features, and determined specific barriers to and facilitators of users adopting mHealth apps. The results can be used to guide mHealth app developers to create apps that would be welcomed by users.