Usable Mobile App for Community Education on Colorectal Cancer: Development Process and Usability Study

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Informatics
• Mobile Health (mHealth)

Background:

• Colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence is rising in Malaysia, with late-stage diagnosis common.
• Low screening participation necessitates improved health education strategies.
• Mobile technology offers a promising channel for health promotion, aligning with user preferences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To document the design and development process of a mobile application for community education on colorectal cancer.
• To evaluate the usability of the developed mobile application prototype.

Main Methods:

• Nominal Group Technique (NGT) involving stakeholders for content and feature identification.
• Mobile app prototype developed using Ionic 1 framework, published on Google Play Store.
• Usability assessment of the prototype by 50 target users (aged 50+) using a validated questionnaire.

Main Results:

• Successful development of the 'Colorectal Cancer Awareness Application' (ColorApp) in Malay.
• App features include CRC information, screening details, and AI-driven interactive tools.
• The ColorApp prototype achieved a mean usability score of 72, indicating it is a usable tool.

Conclusions:

• The ColorApp mobile application is a user-friendly tool for community-based colorectal cancer education.
• The app has the potential to enhance knowledge and encourage screening participation.
• mHealth interventions are effective for public health education in the digital era.