mHealth App Barriers, Usability, and Personalization: A Cross-Sectional Study from Egypt and Saudi Arabia

Mobile health (mHealth) has emerged as a substantial segment of eHealth. Herein, we conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate mHealth app barriers, usability, and personalization in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. We used a Google survey to recruit participants from both countries between the 15th of September and the 15th of October 2022. Among 299 participants (247 from Egypt and 52 from Saudi Arabia), aged ≥ 18 years, 27.4% reported mHealth app use. In the age-, sex-, and country-adjusted regression models, age > 25 years: OR (95% CI) = 1.98 (1.11, 3.54), residing in Saudi Arabia: OR (95% CI) = 4.33 (2.22, 8.48), and physical activity: OR (95% CI) = 2.53 (1.44, 4.44) were associated with mHealth app use. The main mHealth app purposes were lifestyle promotion (35.4%), diet and nutrition (30.5%), and administrative services (13.4%). On a scale from 20 to 100, mHealth app usability scores were 46.3% (20−40), 7.3% (41−60), 31.7% (61−80), and 14.7% (81−100). According to 93.9% of users, mHealth app features were modifiable to meet personal health goals, while 37% stated that mHealth apps helped them set new personal health goals. In conclusion, age, residing in Saudi Arabia (compared to Egypt), and physical activity were positively associated with mHealth app use. mHealth app feature personalization and helping users set new personal health goals were largely reported, suggesting that mHealth has the potential to help put personalized healthcare into practice.