Potencialidad de uso de las aplicaciones móviles de salud en un grupo de población española

Abstract

Introduction: Mobile health or mHealth is the medical practice and the public health managed through the mobile devices. These technologies can support the continuous health monitoring, promote healthy behaviours, reduce the number of health care visits, and provide customized and localized interventions in unimaginable ways previously. It is estimated that by 2015, 500 million people will use mobile health applications (App-S). Objective: We considered this study to know what is the current situation by describing the potential use of these applications among users of these devices. Method: We performed a descriptive cross-sectional study. The final sample consisted of 402 volunteer participants who had to complete an online questionnaire, which included a Likert scale of 15 items, and 5 response options, created for this study. Results:The mean age was 33 years, 71% were women and 35% of people were already using App-S. For the total score of the scale, the 93% had an indifferent position on trust or not in these applications. But more than 73% were in favour that the App-S can provide reliable information about healthy habits, answer questions and assist in the monitoring of chronic diseases. And 92% would use it under professional recommendation. So the App-S does have an enormous potential for use in future health practices.