Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: May 17, 2021
Date Accepted: Jul 6, 2021
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Promoting Health via Mobile Health Applications: Adaptation and Validation of a French Version of the Mobile App Rating Scale
ABSTRACT
Background:
In the last decades, the number of apps promoting health behaviors and health-related strategies and interventions has increased alongside the number of smartphone users. Yet the app validity process for measuring and reporting their quality remains unsatisfactory for health professionals and end-users and represents a public health concern. The Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) is one of the available tools validated and widely used in scientific literature to evaluate and compare the MHAs functionalities. However, the MARS is not adapted to the French culture nor to the language.
Objective:
This study aims to translate, adapt and validate the equivalent French version of the MARS, MARS-F.
Methods:
The original MARS was firstly translated by two independent bilingual scientists and their common version was blind back translated twice by two native English speakers culminating in a final well-established French version of MARS(MARS-F). Its comprehensibility was then evaluated by 6 persons (3 researchers and 3 non-academics) and the final MARS-F version was created. Two independent bilingual raters completed independently the evaluation of 63 apps using the MARS and MARS-F. Inter-rater reliability was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). In addition, internal consistency and validity of both scales were assessed. Mokken Scale Analysis was used to investigate the scalability of the MARS and MARS-F.
Results:
The MARS-F had a good alignment with the original MARS. Its properties were comparable to those of the original MARS. The correlation coefficients (r) between corresponding dimensions of the MARS and the MARS-F ranged from 0.97 to 0.99. The internal consistencies for the MARS-F dimensions were acceptable for the dimensions engagement (⍵=0.79), functionality (⍵=0.79), esthetics (⍵=0.78) and information quality (⍵=0.61) and it was good for the overall MARS score (⍵=0.86). The Mokken Scale Analysis revealed a strong scalability for MARS (H=0.37) and a good one for MARS-F (H=0.35).
Conclusions:
The MARS-F is a valid tool and it would be a crucial aid for researchers, healthcare professionals, public health authorities and interested third parties, to assess the quality of MHA in French speaking countries.
Citation
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