Qualitative assessment of atopic dermatitis-related mobile applications in Korea

Dahee Jin; Tae Hoon Heo; Yoon Lee; Ji-Tae Choung

doi:10.4168/aard.2014.2.5.370

Journal List > Allergy Asthma Respir Dis > v.2(5) > 1059059

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Jin, Heo, Lee, and Choung: Qualitative assessment of atopic dermatitis-related mobile applications in Korea

Original Article

Allergy, Asthma & Respiratory Disease 2014; 2(5): 370-376.

Published online: 28 November 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4168/aard.2014.2.5.370

Qualitative assessment of atopic dermatitis-related mobile applications in Korea

Dahee Jin, Tae Hoon Heo, Yoon Lee, Ji-Tae Choung

Department of Pediatrics, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Correspondence to: Ji-Tae Choung. Department of Pediatrics, Korea University College of Medicine, 73 Inchon-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 136-705, Korea. Tel: +82-2-920-5090, Fax: +82-2-922-7476, jt42525@korea.ac.kr

Received 31 May 2014 Revised 9 September 2014 Accepted 15 September 2014

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/).

Abstract

Purpose

As the mobile internet spread, patients can access to health information via mobile applications. But this information must be a reliable for treatment. This study evaluated the quality of information of mobile applications that with atopic dermatitis.

Methods

On April 2014, the 98 mobile applications that had been searched on three application markets using the keywords, 'atopic dermatitis' etc. were enrolled. Thirty-one applications with information about atopic dermatitis written in Korean were surveyed. The informational quality of each application was examined using DISCERN tool and we also examined authorship, price, number of downloads. And we analyzed relations between these factors and informational quality.

Results

The mean score (±standard deviation) of overall rating of the publications of the 31 applications were 1.55 (±0.888) points. The overall quality of the publication was 'low' in 80.6% of applications, 'moderate' in 16.1%, 'high' in 3.2% of the applications we evaluated. There were no significant differences between the score of price of applications in all questions. However the mean score of group of downloads 1,000 and more were 2.25 (±1.035), significantly higher than group of downloads less than 1,000, 1.30 (±0.703) (P=0.043).

Conclusion

The quality of mobile applications providing health information on atopic dermatitis needs significant improvement. Some guidelines and certifications of the mobile application are needed to provide health information about atopic dermatitis, association with experts.

Keywords: Atopic dermatitis, Mobile applications, Consumer health information

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Mean score of each DISCERN question. The mean score of each DISCERN question showed poor ratings except questions 1, 2, 3.

Fig. 2

DISCERN score according to authorship. Mean score of 'Medical' group was significantly higher than the rests in section 3, but not in sections 1, 2.

^*P<0.05.

Fig. 3

DISCERN score according to price. There was no significant difference in mean score between two groups.

Fig. 4

DISCERN score according to downloads. Mean score of more downloaded mobile applications was significantly higher than the rest in section 1 and 3, but not in section 2. ^*P<0.05.

Table 1

Distribution of the characteristics for atopic dermatitis on mobile applications

Table 2

Sixteen questions of the DISCERN questionnaire and the score9)

SD, standard deviation.

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