JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Smartphone health applications have proved their interest for changing health behaviors. Their use is yet faintly documented in France.

Objective:

The main objective was then to evaluate the frequency of use of health apps among patients consult-ing in primary care. The secondary objectives were to evaluate the use of health applications accord-ing to the sociodemographic and medical characteristics of patients and to determine their use.

Methods:

Population-based crossed-sectional survey carried out between November 2017 and January 2018 in Grenoble area, France, among patients ages between 18 and 69 consulting in 13 primary care physi-cian offices with anonymous paper self-questionnaires. The main criterion was the use of a smartphone health application.

Results:

The participation rate was 49.3% with 597 filled questionnaires. 47.6% (CI [43.6-51.6]) of the sam-ple used at least one smartphone health application. Used health apps were mainly related to well-being, prevention and fitness (66.1%), and to drugs, treatment and follow-up care (50.0%). The asso-ciation factors with the use of health apps were: the use of social networks (OR=3.36), the fact to be a woman (OR=1.77), an age under 30 (OR=2.68), the size of cities (OR=1,81 between 5,001 and 10,000 inhabitants and OR=2.10 for more than 10,000), and the fact to occupy and executive posi-tion, an intellectual profession or and intermediate occupation (OR=1.71).

Conclusions:

The use of smartphone health application was almost one in two patients and is currently mainly limited to well-being, prevention and fitness in a young population. These tools would become more interesting by reaching a broader population. Clinical Trial: The protocol was registered on clinicaltrials.gov (Identifier: NCT03351491).