Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jun 23, 2023
Date Accepted: Oct 6, 2023
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Weight Management Mobile Apps in the China App Store: Analysis of Quality, features, and Behavior Change Techniques
ABSTRACT
Background:
Background:
Numerous mobile applications (apps) are available to assist individuals in managing their weight, the quality and characteristics of such apps have primarily been evaluated in Western countries. However, there is a dearth of studies evaluating weight management apps in China, making it an area ripe for further research.
Objective:
Objective:
The objective of this study was to systematically search for Chinese mobile apps designed for weight management and conduct a comprehensive analysis of their engagement, functionality, aesthetics, information quality, and content-related functions. The study also aimed to analyze the relationship between the quality of the different domains of the weight management apps and the number of Behavior Change Techniques (BCTs) as well as the number of app features.
Methods:
Methods:
Downloaded the weight management app information on the qimai Data platform for iPhone operating system (iOS) and Android stores in April 2023. Two researchers ultimately screened 35 weight management apps for analysis. Assessing the features and quality of apps using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) independently, the presence of BCTs using an established 26-item BCT taxonomy. Spearman correlations were utilized to evaluate the correlation between the quality of an application and its technical features, as well as the number of BCTs incorporated. Additionally, the correlation between various domains of application quality and the BCTs included in those applications was examined.
Results:
Results:
The dataset comprises a total of 35 applications, with 8 available in the Android App Store, 10 in the Apple Store, and 17 in both App Stores. The overall quality mean MARS score was 3.53 (standard deviation (SD) = 0.53), functionality was the highest scoring domain (mean: 4.3, SD: 0.44), followed by aesthetics (mean: 3.65, SD: 0.52), engagement(mean: 3.20, SD: 0.83), and lower scoring for information (mean: 3.00, SD: 0.69). The mean number of BCTs in the analyzed apps was 9.17 (range: 2-18). The most common BCTs were "prompting a review of behavioral goals" and "providing guidance" (31 apps, 88.6%), followed by "prompting self-monitoring of behavior" (30 apps, 85.7%), " Prompt specific goal setting" (29 apps, 82.9%)", and "providing performance feedback" (27 apps, 77.1%). The techniques of "preventing relapse," "using follow-up prompts," and "teaching how to use prompts or cues" were not. High positive correlations were observed among the number of BCTs incorporated, app quality, and app features.
Conclusions:
Conclusions:
The overall quality of weight management apps in China was moderate, with relatively low-quality information. The most common BCTs were reviewing behavioral goals, providing guidance, self-monitoring behavior, goal setting, and performance feedback. in general, higher-quality weight management apps in China included more BCTs with features. These findings guide the development of high-quality weight management apps to increase the potential for behavior change in weight management.
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