Consumers’ Preferences for Purchasing mHealth Apps: Discrete Choice Experiment

Abstract

Abstract BackgroundThere is growing interest in mobile health apps; however, not all of them have been successful. The most common issue has been users’ nonadoption or abandonment of health apps because the app designs do not meet their preferences. Therefore, to facilitate design-preference fit, understanding consumers’ preferences for health apps is necessary, which can be accomplished by using a discrete choice experiment. ObjectiveThis study aims to examine consumer preferences for health apps and how these preferences differ across individuals with different sociodemographic characteristics and health app usage and purchase experiences. MethodsA cross-sectional discrete choice experiment questionnaire survey was conducted with 593 adults living in Hong Kong. A total of 7 health app attributes that might affect consumers’ preferences for health apps were examined, including usefulness, ease of use, security and privacy, health care professionals’ attitudes, smartphone storage consumption, mobile data consumption, and cost. Mixed-effect logit regressions were used to examine how these attributes affected consumer preferences for health apps. Fixed effects (coefficient β) of the attributes and random effects of individual differences were modeled. Subgroup analyses of consumer preferences by sex, age, household income, education level, and health app usage and purchase experiences were conducted. ResultsCost was the attribute that had the greatest effect on consumers’ choice of health apps (compared to HK $10 [US $1.27]—HK $50 [US $6.37]: β=−1.064; PPno security insurancesome security policiesPcomplete security systemPslightly usefulmoderately usefulPvery usefulPdata-consuminga bit data-consumingPdata-savingPPPneutralmoderately supportivePvery supportivePnot easy to usemoderately easy to usePvery easy to useP ConclusionsIt is recommended that future health apps keep their mobile data and phone storage consumption low, include a complete security system to protect personal health information, provide useful content and features, adopt user-friendly interfaces, and involve health care professionals. In addition, health app developers should identify the characteristics of their intended users and design and develop health apps to fit the preferences of the intended users.