Quality of Publicly Available Physical Activity Apps: Review and Content Analysis
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Within the new digital health landscape, the rise of health apps creates novel prospects for health promotion. The market is saturated with apps that aim to increase physical activity (PA). Despite the wide distribution and popularity of PA apps, there are limited data on their effectiveness, user experience, and safety of personal data. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this review and content analysis was to evaluate the quality of the most popular PA apps on the market using health care quality indicators. METHODS: The top-ranked 400 free and paid apps from iTunes and Google Play stores were screened. Apps were included if the primary behavior targeted was PA, targeted users were adults, and the apps had stand-alone functionality. The apps were downloaded on mobile phones and assessed by 2 reviewers against the following quality assessment criteria: (1) users' data privacy and security, (2) presence of behavior change techniques (BCTs) and quality of the development and evaluation processes, and (3) user ratings and usability. RESULTS: Out of 400 apps, 156 met the inclusion criteria, of which 65 apps were randomly selected to be downloaded and assessed. Almost 30% apps (19/65) did not have privacy policy. Every app contained at least one BCT, with an average number of 7 and a maximum of 13 BCTs. All but one app had commercial affiliation, 12 consulted an expert, and none reported involving users in the app development. Only 12 of 65 apps had a peer-reviewed study connected to the app. User ratings were high, with only a quarter of the ratings falling below 4 stars. The median usability score was excellent-86.3 out of 100. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the popularity of PA apps available on the commercial market, there were substantial shortcomings in the areas of data safety and likelihood of effectiveness of the apps assessed. The limited quality of the apps may represent a missed opportunity for PA promotion.
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65 of the physical activity apps used in this study came from the same paper [15].
“Moreover, 65 of the physical activity apps used in this study came from the same paper [15].”
From System Usability Scale Benchmarking for Digital Health Apps: Meta-analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [15]
The paper [15] used 2 reviewers when evaluating each of the apps.
“This paper used 2 reviewers when evaluating each of the apps.”
From System Usability Scale Benchmarking for Digital Health Apps: Meta-analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [15]
The paper that published the SUS scores of these 65 physical activity apps focused on the most popular apps available.
“The paper that published the SUS scores of these 65 physical activity apps focused on the most popular apps available to conduct their SUS evaluation”
From System Usability Scale Benchmarking for Digital Health Apps: Meta-analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [15]
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- Authors
- Bondaronek, P., Alkhaldi, G., Slee, A., Hamilton, F. L., & Murray, E.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- King Saud University (SA)
- Corresponding author
- Bondaronek, Paulina
- Venue
- JMIR mHealth and uHealth
- Publisher
- JMIR Publications Inc.
- Published
- 2018-03-21
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- e53
- ISSN
- 2291-5222 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5885062
- OpenAlex
- W2793636399
- Cited by
- 156
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 5
- FWCI
- 3.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- JMIR mhealth and uhealth (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (acceptedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (CL-2013-18-004)
- University College London
- Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Keywords
- physical activity apps, mobile health apps, app quality assessment, behaviour change techniques, data privacy and security, user ratings, usability, digital health promotion
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