Mobile Health Apps Linked to Improved Health and Economic Outcomes

Study finds that diabetic Asian patients that used smart mobile health (or mHealth) technologies had better health and economic outcomes than those who didn't use mHealth applications.

The patients could regulate their health behavior //more effectively and had fewer hospital visits and lower medical costs.

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‘mHealth app was associated with substantial modifications in behavior toward a healthier diet and lifestyle’
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Beibei Li, co-author, explains that since health behaviors are important for well-being, health outcomes, and disease processes, mHealth technologies can facilitate patients' lifestyle and modify behavior through patient education while improving autonomous self-regulation and perceived competence.

mHealth technologies include mobile computing, medical sensor, and communication technologies for health care services. These can be accessed on smartphones, tablets, sensors, and cloud-based computing systems.

The study aimed to find how these applications help individuals modify their behavior to obtain certain health goals.

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Patients' compliance was measured by looking at their activities (like food intake, sleep pattern, daily walking steps, and exercise time) recorded by the app, along with general health outcomes, hospital visits, and medical expenses.

In the study, 1,070 adult patients were randomly divided into three groups for three months - patients who used the mHealth app, those who did not, and those who used a web-based version of the app. Some patients from the mHealth app group received personalized text message reminders, while others received non-personalized text messages.

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All participants were interviewed before the start of the study and five months after its end. They were questioned about their demographics, blood glucose, hemoglobin levels, medication and medical history, frequency of hospital visits, and medical costs.

Findings showed that patients from the mHealth app group reduced their blood glucose and hemoglobin levels. These patients exercised more, slept more, ate healthier food, had fewer hospital visits, and lower medical expenses.

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According to the authors, using the mHealth app was associated with substantial modifications in behavior toward a healthier diet and lifestyle, making users autonomously self-regulated. This increased their intrinsic motivation, thereby helping them become more engaged, persistent, and stable in their behavior, leading to improved health outcomes.

Increased telemedicine usage, facilitated by the mHealth technology, was also observed, resulting in reduced hospital visits and medical expenses.

Results also highlighted that a mHealth app improved patients' health outcomes more effectively than its web-based (PC) version. Non-personalized messages were also more effective in modifying behavior than their counterparts. Authors suggest that this could be because personalized messages can be viewed as intrusive, coercive, and annoying.

The study's limitations include its main focus on participants with Type II diabetes which has a direct link with dietary or lifestyle self-management.

Anindya Ghose, co-author, states, "Our findings provide important insights on the design of mHealth apps through a better understanding of patients' health behavior and interactions with the platform."

He adds that the findings can help health-care mobile technology designers and policymakers to improve the design of health infrastructures through sustained usage of emerging technologies.

Source-Medindia