Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Oct 6, 2019
Date Accepted: Sep 4, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Patient perception of mobile phone applications for the care and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s): A cross-sectional study in an STD clinic setting
ABSTRACT
Background:
In the emerging era of digitalization and electronic health, various health-related apps have been launched, including apps for sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s). Until now, little is known about how patients perceive the value of such apps.
Objective:
To investigate patient attitudes and their awareness towards STD-related apps in an outpatient STD clinic setting.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study was conducted at the venereological outpatient unit of the University Hospital (LMU Munich, Germany) between April and July 2019. Patients completed a self-administered questionnaire on the popularity and usefulness of STD-related apps. Descriptive analysis was performed with expression of categorical variables such as frequencies and percentages. For continuous variables, the median and range were indicated. Contingency tables and chi²-tests were performed to investigate associations between sociodemographic data and selected items of the questionnaire.
Results:
A total of 226 patients were surveyed (71.0% heterosexual, 22.8% homosexual, 6.2% bisexual). Nearly half of the patients (45.3%) specifically considered STD-related apps useful, 47.8% voted that they could supplement or support the consultation of a physician. Interestingly, only 35.1% preferred a printed patient brochure on STD’s over downloading and using an app but 64.0% would download an STD-related app recommended by their physician. General information regarding STD’s (55.7%), evaluation of skin diseases based on photos or videos (53.3%), information on the prevention of STD’s (45.5%), mediation of nearby contact points or test sites (44.3%), anonymous medical advice (41.3%), and calculation of the risk of having an STD (37.3%) were rated as most important features. Male sex was associated with a high willingness to use (P = 0.006) and pay (P = 0.01) for STD-related apps. Patients aged <40 years would rather download an app recommended by their physician (P = 0.03), whereas patients older than 40 years preferred reading a patient brochure on STD’s (P = 0.02).
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates a high general interest in the use of STD-related apps. In particular, young age and male sex were significantly associated with a positive perception, underlining the high potential of apps in the prevention and early recognition of STD’s in this high risk population.
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