Mobile Apps for Vaccination Services: Content Analysis and Quality Assessment

Vaccination services are increasingly in demand by the public, and mobile apps are an effective tool to meet that demand. However, the characteristics and quality of these apps are unknown.

Commonly used vaccination service apps on the market were surveyed with regard to quality, service content, and user experience to evaluate and guide users.

The Qimai Data mobile app data analytics platform was used to search for common vaccination service apps by keyword, and the WeChat and Alipay platforms were searched for apps. The apps included in the study were independently evaluated by two reviewers using the Mobile Application Rating Scale, and the service content and user experience of the apps were analyzed. The intragroup correlation coefficient between raters was used to measure interrater reliability.

In the app stores of the four major Android platforms and the iOS app store, 1092 and 207 apps were found, respectively; 189 WeChat applets and 30 Alipay applets were also found. A total of 29 apps was ultimately included in this study according to the inclusion criteria, including 21 independent apps, 4 WeChat applets, and 4 Alipay applets. Significant differences were found between independent apps and applets in terms of the quality score (t_449.57=-5.301; P<.001) and the subjective quality score (z=-4.753; P<.001). No significant differences were found between iOS and Android platforms in terms of the quality score (t₁₄₀₄=-2.55; P=.80) and the subjective quality score (z=-0.137; P=.89). There was good intragroup consistency among the raters.

In this study, independent apps and nonindependent apps that rely on social and payment platforms for implementation were included in the vaccination services category. The overall quality of these apps was acceptable. Nonindependent running apps were found to have slightly lower scores and showed room for improvement, and scores for the participatory apps were found to be generally low overall.