Tailoring mobile health apps for lifestyle management: a discrete choice experiment

Health apps designed to monitor, motivate, and educate people towards their health goals are getting more users and features each time. These apps offer valuable support for self-managing health behaviors and achieving long-term objectives. However, there is limited understanding of user preferences regarding essential app features. The aim of the study is to get insights about potential users' preferences, in order to tailor better apps for lifestyle management.

We conducted a three-part web survey with 389 respondents from four countries as part of the DigiCare4You European Union (EU) project. In the first part, we collected the socioeconomic characteristics and health status of each respondent. In the following stage, we asked five questions on a Likert scale to ascertain the individual level of usage and general attitude towards technology. Finally, we performed a discrete choice experiment (DCE) using an unlabeled design and estimated the odds ratio for each feature using conditional logit analysis. We also ran alternative estimations stratifying by non-communicable disease (NCD) patients and non-NCD patients, and explored latent profile analysis (LPA) to understand whether the general attitude towards technology impacts the preference pattern between users.

The DCE revealed that respondents showed a clear preference for monitoring physical health over emotional status. They favored receiving lifestyle achievement notifications weekly rather than daily, and daily rather than more frequently. Similarly, respondents preferred uploading body weight measurements on a weekly or monthly basis rather than daily. Users expressed a preference for collaborating with their doctors to set exercise and diet goals, rather than either deciding independently or delegating entirely to their doctors. End-users also show a pattern of preferring notifications for goals instead of challenging other users. Preferences regarding the subjects of health content between workout routines, food recipes, and new scientific evidence were not significant; also, no statistical significance was found for the decision between follow-up visits with their doctor in person or remotely. LPA returned two groups regarding their general attitude towards technology: a lower, an intermediate, and a higher usage in their private life based on their responses to the questionnaire. Stratified DCEs have shown heterogeneity of users' preferences according to their specific attitude towards technology.

Our study indicates that potential mobile health (mHealth) app users managing chronic conditions prefer platforms that enable shared responsibility with their doctors in defining health goals while having an intermediate level of interaction frequency with the app. These findings are key to tailoring mHealth apps that can optimize motivation triggers, support healthier lifestyles, and empower patients with chronic conditions.