User Adoption and Evaluation of Mobile Health Applications: The Case for Physical Activity Monitoring

In recent years, the presence of behavior change techniques used in mobile applications for physical activity has been investigated by several authors using content analysis and qualitative studies. However, users’ adoption and evaluation of application-specific features remain to be an unexplored area. In this study, mobile applications that employ behavioral change support features to encourage physical activity are explored in terms of users’ number of downloads and user evaluation scores, namely, ratings. An empirical hands-on analysis of 78 mobile physical activity applications from Google Play Store was conducted to extract the features that support behavior change. The mRMR methodology was used to find the most relevant features. It was found that user downloads are highly related to the features including voice coach, visualization of activity statistics, self-reports, reminders, sharing activity statistics, social platform support, and sharing with community friends. Significant features were found to vary depending on the subcategory of physical activity applications.

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