Role of mobile health applications in prevention and detection of pandemic disease: A population perspective

Abstract

Background The Saudi government and the MOH launched six mobile application help in tracking positive cases, get medical consultation from home, and vaccination for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Our study was conducted to evaluate the role of mobile health applications in the prevention and detection of pandemic disease from population perspectives. Methods A cross-sectional descriptive exploratory research design was utilized in this study. Based on the sample size calculation (described below), we recruited a convenience sample of 462 participants from the Northern Border Region according to the set of inclusion and exclusion criteria: Anyone over 12 years of age, including both genders and both Saudi citizens and non-Saudi citizens, were eligible to participate during the period from March 2022 to the end of July. Results In total 462 were participated, and 79.2% of them were females. There was a statistically significant difference between educational level and the overall score of public satisfaction with the ease of use of mobile health applications as well as overall satisfaction with the services provided by mobile health apps during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, there was a statistically significant difference between gender and the role of mobile applications in the prevention of COVID-19 ( p = 0.028). Conclusion The study found that most participants agree that the mobile health applications launched by the Saudi government and Ministry of Health have been successful in aiding the anticipation and early detection of COVID-19 cases, as well as facilitating access to healthcare services. Over half of the participants strongly agree that these mobile applications have been very effective and beneficial for their health and have helped save time.