Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Jul 14, 2022
Date Accepted: Jan 1, 2023
Development of a Secondary Prevention Smartphone App for Students with Unhealthy Alcohol Use: Results from a Qualitative Assessment
ABSTRACT
Background:
Despite considerable efforts devoted to the development of prevention interventions aiming at reducing unhealthy alcohol use in tertiary students, their delivery remains often challenging. Interventions including information technology are promising given their potential to reach large parts of the population.
Objective:
This study aimed to develop a secondary prevention smartphone application with an iterative qualitative design involving the target population.
Methods:
The application development included testing a first prototype and a second prototype, developed based on the results of two consecutive qualitative assessments. Participants (18 years or more, screened positive for unhealthy alcohol use) were students from four tertiary education institutions in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Participants tested prototype 1 and/or prototype 2 and provided feedback in one-to-one semi-structured interviews after 2-3 weeks of testing.
Results:
Mean participant age was 23.3; 50% female. Nine students tested prototype 1 and participated in qualitative interviews. Content analysis identified six main themes: “General acceptance of the app,” “Importance of targeted and relevant app content,” “Importance of the app usability,” ”Importance of the design,” “Importance of notifications.” Beside a general acceptance of the app, these themes reflected participants’ recommendations towards increased usability; to improve the design; to include useful and rewarding contents; to make the application look serious and credible; and to add notifications to ensure application use over time. Eleven students tested prototype 2 (6 who tested prototype 1 and 5 new) and participated in semi-strucured interviews. The six same themes emerged from the analysis. Participants from phase 1 generally found the design and content of the application improved.
Conclusions:
Students recommend prevention smartphone applications to be easy to use, useful, rewarding, serious and credible. These findings may be important to consider when developing prevention smartphone applications to increase the likelihood of application use over time. Clinical Trial: ISRCTN 10007691
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