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Baseline Smartphone App Survey Return in the Electronic Framingham Heart Study Offspring and Omni 1 Study: eCohort
Jian Rong1, Chathurangi H Pathiravasan2, Yuankai Zhang3
1Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Framingham, MA, United States.
JMIR Aging
|December 31, 2024
Summary
This study successfully engaged older adults using a smartphone app for health monitoring, showing high return and completion rates. Participants rated the app highly for functionality and aesthetics.
Area of Science:
- Digital Health
- Gerontology
- Clinical Informatics
Background:
- Smartphone applications offer convenient remote monitoring for chronic conditions.
- Few digital health studies have focused on incorporating older adult populations.
- Older adults represent an underrepresented demographic in digital health research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish an electronic cohort of older adults within the Framingham Heart Study.
- To assess smartphone survey return and completion rates across different device types (iPhone vs. Android).
- To report on participant experience and survey outcomes from a novel mobile health application.
Main Methods:
- Recruited Framingham Heart Study participants (Offspring and Omni cohorts) who owned smartphones.
- Utilized a dedicated app for health surveys, including Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) measures.
- Compared survey return and completion rates between iPhone and Android users; administered Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) for user feedback.
Main Results:
- Enrolled 611 older adults (average age 73.6 years; 56.6% women); 97.5% returned at least one survey.
- iPhone users exhibited higher survey return rates compared to Android users, though completion rates were similar.
- Participants demonstrated better PROMIS scores than the general population, and the app received high ratings for functionality and aesthetics (MARS score: 8.6/10).
Conclusions:
- Successfully engaged community-dwelling older adults in a digital health study using a smartphone app.
- Achieved high survey return and completion rates, indicating feasibility and participant adherence.
- The study highlights the potential of smartphone apps for collecting health data from older populations.
