Factors Related to mHealth App Use Among Japanese Workers: Cross-Sectional Survey

Health care providers can make health guidance more effective by using mobile health technologies such as health apps. Although health care providers need to know who uses health apps, existing studies have yielded inconsistent results.

The aim of the study was (1) to clarify the prevalence and patterns of health app use to improve health behaviors for preventing lifestyle-related diseases among Japanese workers and (2) to identify the associations among demographic characteristics, health behavior, and internet use and health app use by gender.

Data were collected from a cross-sectional internet survey in 2023. In total, 2200 participants were included, with an even distribution of men and women in each age group aged 20 to 60 years. The participants were workers with smartphones and reported their gender, age, residence area, marital status, education, employment status, occupation, work pattern, diseases under treatment, health checkups, health guidance, health behaviors, internet use duration, and number of devices used. We asked about current and previous health app use for 1 month. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted by gender.

Of the participants, 472 (21.5%) and 189 (8.6%) were current and previous health app users, respectively. Most current and previous health app users used features that record and track their physical activity and other health behaviors. Health app users-both men and women-were more likely to have health checkups (odds ratio [OR] 1.53, 95% CI 1.12-2.11 and OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.10-2.07, respectively), receive health guidance (OR 2.01, 95% CI 1.47-2.74 and OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.32-2.62, respectively), engage in regular physical activity (OR 2.57, 95% CI 1.91-3.47 and OR 1.94, 95% CI 1.41-2.67, respectively), use the internet for 120-179 minutes per day (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.13-2.75 and OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.12-2.57, respectively), and were less likely to be older (50-59 years: OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.33-0.88 and OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.25-0.6, respectively, and 60-69 years: OR 0.37, 95% CI 0.22-0.62 and OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.28-0.77, respectively). According to gender, male health app users were more likely to be married (OR 1.69, 95% CI 1.23-2.33) and less likely to work in the security, agriculture, forestry, fishing, manufacturing, or transportation industries (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.41-0.95). Female health app users were more likely to have a university education or higher (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.061-2.26), maintain an appropriate body weight (OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.10-2.11), and use 3 or more devices (OR 2.13, 95% CI 1.41-3.23).

Physical activity and health guidance are strong predictors of app use. Health care providers should assess the target populations' preferences for app use based on their characteristics, support their app use, and enhance the effectiveness of health guidance.