The top factors spurring behavioral change among mHealth users are personalized content, educational tools and dashboard functionality, according to a recent research2guidance blog post.
Simple reminder features, financial incentives and gamification also can foster behavior changes, according to Sean Phillips of the Berlin-based consultancy. Still, he notes, 60 percent of 5,000 mHealth experts surveyed in 2015 cited dashboards as the most effective feature. While data sharing between users and providers is heralded as the most compelling action for driving behavior change, it also is viewed as the most challenging to implement.
That challenge, as well as app complexity, is why user behavior is not changing as expected, that report notes.
"One of the main promises of mHealth apps is that they help their users change their behavior," the report states. "The majority of mHealth apps today don't even come close to living up to this promise because they lose their users after a few days and thus have no chance to change any behavior."
A six-month Scripps Translational Science Institute trial evaluating mobile healthcare technology versus traditional disease management, reveals "little evidence" digital medicine intervention reduces healthcare costs or drives greater consumer healthcare interest.
For more information:
- here's the blog post