Mobile Health applications - untapped potential

  • Maja Koraćević University of Niš – Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pharmacy; University of Niš – Innovation Center
  • Aleksandar Jovanović University of Niš – Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pharmacy; University of Belgrade – Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Social Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Legislation
  • Dragana Pavlović University of Niš – Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pharmacy
  • Aleksandra Catić-Đorđević University of Niš – Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pharmacy

Abstract


Today, there are a number of applications that allow you to monitor physical activity and health parameters or schedule a medical examination, and can also help you recognize a health problem and react in time. The aim of the present study was to assess the usage of health applications (HApps, health-related mobile and/or web applications) among citizens in Serbia. The anonymous online questionnaire was distributed via social media in the spring of 2020. Data were processed using the IBM SPSS. 506 respondents participated in the research, of which 155 were from the health profession. The majority of respondents were female (73.9%), and the average age was 36.88 ± 11.22. About half of the respondents (48.2%) have a university degree, and 74.9% are employed. Installed HApps on phone/computer have 18.2% of respondents, with a statistically significant difference (p <0.01) between health professionals (25.8%) and non-health (14.8%). The most commonly used HApps among health professionals are those related to their professional work (14.7%), followed by general health (3.8%) and specific diseases (1.9%). Non-health professional respondents mostly used applications related to general health (5.4%), fitness (2.0%) and the chosen doctor (1.4%). Only 0.6% of citizens used COVID-19 pandemic applications. The importance of HApps is still not sufficiently recognized in Serbia. Given the potential in controlling chronic diseases and other health conditions, especially among a population with limited access to health care and health information, they should be more integrated into the health system.

References

Krebs P, Duncan DT. Health App Use Among US Mobile Phone Owners: A National Survey. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2015;3(4):e101.

Dahri K, Gong Y, Loewen P. A quantitative and qualitative assessment of the utilization of mobile computing devices by clinical pharmacists. Health Policy and Technology 2016;5(3):285-290.

Published
2022/10/18
Section
Poster presentations session Social pharmacy and pharmaceutical legislation