JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

According to the World Health Organization, implementing mobile health technologies can increase the access to quality health services worldwide. Mobile health applications for smartphones, also known as health apps, are a central component of mobile health, and they are already used in diverse medical contexts. To benefit from health apps, potential users need specific skills that enable them to use health apps in a responsible and constructive manner.

Objective:

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the free and widely used online intervention “The APPocalypse?”. Besides providing knowledge about health apps, the online intervention was designed to promote digital health and media literacy by teaching skills that enable users to distinguish between trustworthy and less trustworthy health apps. It was hypothesized that after completing the online intervention, participants’ knowledge in the domain of health apps (hypothesis 1), their digital health literacy (hypothesis 2), and their media literacy (hypothesis 3) would be higher than it was before completing the online intervention. Another aim was to objectively evaluate the attractiveness and practical value of the online intervention. Therefore, the educational quality and user experience of the online intervention were assessed and compared against relevant benchmarks.

Methods:

The study was divided into three parts. During part one, participants provided demographic information and answered the pre-post measurements. The measurements included questionnaires about participants` knowledge in the domain of health apps, digital health literacy, and media literacy. During part two, participants had one week to complete the online intervention. During part three, participants answered the pre-post measurements again. Furthermore, they answered educational quality and user experience questionnaires.

Results:

Overall, the results support the hypotheses. After completing the online intervention, participants demonstrated more elaborate knowledge in the domain of health apps. Specifically, they displayed higher competencies in the domains of subjective (BF10=1.475×1079, effect size δ=-1.327) and objective health app knowledge (BF10=8.162×1080, effect size δ=-1.350). Furthermore, participants demonstrated higher digital health literacy. Specifically, they displayed higher competencies in the domains of information appraisal (BF10=3.413×1043, effect size δ=-0.870), information searching (BF10=3.324×1023, effect size δ=-0.604), evaluating reliability (BF10=3.081×1035, effect size δ=-0.766), and determining relevance (BF10=3.451×1024, effect size δ=-0.618). Regarding media literacy, the results were mixed. Participants displayed higher competencies in the domain of technology literacy beliefs (BF10=1.533×1021, effect size δ=-0.570). In the domain of technology control beliefs, their competencies did not seem to improve (BF10=0.109, effect size δ=-0.058). In comparison to relevant benchmarks, the online intervention offers an exceptional educational quality and a superior user experience.

Conclusions:

The free and widely used online intervention “The APPocalypse?” can promote the constructive use of health apps, digital health literacy, and media literacy. Therefore, it might help to reach the health-related United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.