Health Applications for Corporate Health Management
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Many corporate organizations around the world are looking at new ways to improve the health and well-being of their employees. Many have begun to use m-health approaches and unique applications (apps) to provide assistance. In Germany, both m-health and occupational health management (OHM) are growing quickly. Therefore, we hypothesized that the combination-apps usage in OHM-is growing as well. We studied the usage of health apps in large corporations for health management of employed individuals. METHODS: To understand the environment in Germany, a two-part study was conducted. First, an extensive literature search was done and second, interviews were conducted with 12 of the 20 biggest companies' health management representatives. RESULTS: Using key search terms, 5,445 peer-reviewed journal articles traced with German databases and on PubMed were reviewed. Interestingly and somewhat surprising to the authors, none of them covered our specific topic. Interviews were conducted with 60% of the companies indicated. Only 3 out of 12 companies use apps. Four companies are piloting apps. With one exception, apps cover well-known areas such as food coaching, physical motion, smoking cessation, stress prevention, and other health-related subjects. One app used sensors in work clothing to prevent unhealthy motion. With a few exceptions, there has been no evaluation of the utility and utilization of apps. DISCUSSION: Current app usage in corporate health management in Germany is surprisingly low. Apps need to be better evaluated. Main obstacles-which could be resolved in the future-are legal restrictions (especially on data security), the lack of company-owned smart phones, misfit of apps and corporate health strategy, a lack of app evaluation, and high app prices.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
WHP representatives have started to rely on technology, particularly mobile applications.
“WHP representatives have started to rely on technology, particularly mobile applications (apps) [10].”
From Advantages and disadvantages of mobile applications for workplace health promotion: A scoping review (2024) · cites this paper as [10]
Mobile apps may be effective for WHP.
“As mobile apps are viewed as effective in various other areas of health care, it can be argued that they also may be effective for WHP [10].”
From Advantages and disadvantages of mobile applications for workplace health promotion: A scoping review (2024) · cites this paper as [10]
Mobile apps are viewed as effective in various other areas of health care.
“As mobile apps are viewed as effective in various other areas of health care, it can be argued that they also may be effective for WHP [10].”
From Advantages and disadvantages of mobile applications for workplace health promotion: A scoping review (2024) · cites this paper as [10]
Cites
Mayring, P. (2010) · Handbuch Qualitative Forschung in der Psychologie · doi:10.1007/978-3-531-92052-8_42 · Cited by 1,752 · see citing works
Free, C., Phillips, G., Watson, L., Galli, L., Felix, L., Edwards, P., Patel, V., & Haines, A. (2013) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001363 · Cited by 1,187 · see citing works
A Web-Based Approach to Managing Stress and Mood Disorders in the Workforce
Billings, D. W., Cook, R. F., Hendrickson, A., & Dove, D. C. (2008) · Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine · doi:10.1097/jom.0b013e31816c435b · Cited by 117 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Since earlier findings on Web-based corporate health management (CHM) tools yielded mixed results, it seems to be even more desirable to measure health app efficacy.(8,9) Nevertheless, companies expect app usage to increase, mainly due to younger employees used to smartphones and further app development.”
Becker, S., Kribben, A., Meister, S., Diamantidis, C. J., Unger, N., & Mitchell, A. (2013) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0078547 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
Kawakami, N., Takao, S., Kobayashi, Y., & Tsutsumi, A. (2006) · Journal of Occupational Health · doi:10.1539/joh.48.28 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Dunkl, A., & Jiménez, P. (2017) · Health Informatics Journal · doi:10.1177/1460458215623077 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Health promotion in the workplace
Boorman, S., & Banks, I. (2013) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/med/9780199643240.003.0031 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Jiménez, P., & Bregenzer, A. (2018) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.8769 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
de Korte, E., Wiezer, N. M., Roozeboom, M. B., Vink, P., & Kraaij, W. (2018) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/mhealth.6363 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Karlsen, I., Svendsen, P. A., & Abildgaard, J. S. (2022) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-022-13821-6 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Advantages and disadvantages of mobile applications for workplace health promotion: A scoping review
Junker, M., Böhm, M., & Krcmar, H. (2024) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0296212 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
“As mobile apps are viewed as effective in various other areas of health care, it can be argued that they also may be effective for WHP [10].”
BackgroundMarthick, M., Janssen, A. L., Cheema, B. S., Alison, J. A., Shaw, T. J., & Dhillon, H. M. (2019) · JMIR Cancer · doi:10.2196/15539 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Value of normative belief in intention to use workplace health promotion apps
Junker, M., Böhm, M., Franz, M., Fritsch, T., & Krcmar, H. (2022) · BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making · doi:10.1186/s12911-022-01760-6 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Junker, M., Dünnebeil, S., Böhm, M., & Krcmar, H. (2023) · Health Informatics Journal · doi:10.1177/14604582221148058 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Herausforderung im Betrieblichen Gesundheitsmanagement – Viele Beschäftigte erreichen
Peck, A., Sandrock, S., & Stowasser, S. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-22738-8_41 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Künstliche Intelligenz in der betrieblichen Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung
Matusiewicz, D. (2025) · Fehlzeiten-Report · doi:10.1007/978-3-662-71885-8_6 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationBregenzer, A., & Jiménez, P. (2018) · Springer Reference Wirtschaft · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-17975-5_30-1 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Bregenzer, A., & Jiménez, P. (2021) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-17782-9_30 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Chen, M., & Kao, F. (2020) · Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine · doi:10.1097/jom.0000000000001897
Bregenzer, A., & Jiménez, P. (2020) · Springer Reference Wirtschaft · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-17975-5_30-2
Badilla-Murillo, F., & Víquez-Acuña, Ó. (2025) · Investiga Tec. · doi:10.18845/itec.v18i53.8014
Karlsen, I., Svendsen, P. A., & Abildgaard, J. S. (2022) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.20472400
Karlsen, I., Svendsen, P. A., & Abildgaard, J. S. (2022) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.20472403
Additional file 1 of Value of normative belief in intention to use workplace health promotion apps
Junker, M., Böhm, M., Franz, M., Fritsch, T., & Krcmar, H. (2022) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.19112671
- Authors
- Steigner, G., Doarn, C. R., Schütte, M., Matusiewicz, D., & Thielscher, C.
- Affiliations
- FOM University of Applied Sciences for Economics and Management (DE)
- University of Cincinnati (US)
- Heidelberg University (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Thielscher, Christian
- Venue
- Telemedicine and e-Health
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2017-05
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 448-452
- ISSN
- 1530-5627 (ISSN-L)
- 1556-3669
- OpenAlex
- W2557079196
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 4
- FWCI
- 3.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Telemedicine Journal and e-Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Workplace Health and Well-being
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Keywords
- corporate health management, occupational health management, health apps, mobile health, employee well-being, data security, app evaluation, stress prevention, smoking cessation, Germany
- MeSH terms
- Smartphone, Adult, Female, Germany, Health Promotion, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Professional Corporations, Occupational Health, Telemedicine, Mobile Applications
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
