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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth

Date Submitted: Jun 16, 2022
Date Accepted: Oct 21, 2022

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Individual and Parental Factors of Adolescents’ mHealth App Use: Nationally Representative Cross-sectional Study

Gulec H, Smahel D

Individual and Parental Factors of Adolescents’ mHealth App Use: Nationally Representative Cross-sectional Study

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2022;10(12):e40340

DOI: 10.2196/40340

PMID: 36525286

PMCID: 9804093

Individual and Parental Factors of Adolescents' mHealth App Use: A Nationally Representative Cross-Sectional Study

  • Hayriye Gulec; 
  • David Smahel

ABSTRACT

Background:

The knowledge of the characteristics of adolescents who use mobile health (mHealth) apps to monitor health and how they differ from app nonusers is limited.

Objective:

We aimed to determine the mHealth app use based on adolescent and parental factors, including sociodemographics, digital skills, and health indicators in a nationally representative sample of Czech adolescents (n=2,500).

Methods:

Adolescents aged 11-16 and one of their parents participated in an online survey in 2021. A professional research agency recruited the participants. Quotas were used to ensure the sample's representativeness. The sociodemographic factors were the adolescents' age, gender, and household income. They also provided information about their screen time, eHealth literacy, body mass index (BMI), health anxiety, physical activity, and sleep quality. Parents reported their digital skills, phone attitudes, and the mediation of their children's online health information-seeking behaviors. We evaluated the differences between the users and nonusers of mHealth apps and identified the significant predictors for mHealth use. Then, we separately examined how these factors were associated with using the following types of mHealth apps: (1) Calorie intake or expenditure; (2) Number of steps; (3) Weight; (4) Sports (e.g., exercise, running, working out); and (5) Other health apps (e.g., sleep, heart rate).

Results:

More than half of the adolescents (1,429/2,455, 58.2%) reported using mHealth apps. App users were relatively older and, more often, girls. Apps that counted the number of steps were utilized most frequently and the adolescents with higher household incomes used them more regularly. Overall, being older and physically active and having higher eHealth literacy skills were associated with using mHealth apps. Adolescents with higher BMI, health anxiety, and lower sleep quality more frequently used mHealth apps to track calorie intake/expenditure, weight, and health indicators. The mHealth apps to track physical activity were used more regularly by girls. The only parental factor associated with using mHealth apps was the parental mediation of online health information-seeking behaviors.

Conclusions:

The current findings demonstrated that older age, physical activity, and eHealth literacy skills were the common underlying factors of adolescents' mHealth app use. We initially showed parents as significant role models for their children's adoption of and engagement with mHealth apps when they actively mediate their online health information-seeking behaviors. Improving the eHealth literacy skills of adolescents through parental guidance might enhance health technology use in this population. Tracking eating behaviors, weight, and health were more prevalent for adolescents who reported deterioration in BMI, health anxiety, and sleep quality. Future research studies should examine the determinants and health outcomes of adolescents' mHealth app use longitudinally.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Gulec H, Smahel D

Individual and Parental Factors of Adolescents’ mHealth App Use: Nationally Representative Cross-sectional Study

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2022;10(12):e40340

DOI: 10.2196/40340

PMID: 36525286

PMCID: 9804093

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