PREFERENCES FOR ADOPTING A MOBILE HEALTH APP: A BEST-WORST SCALING AND DISCRETE CHOICE EXPERIMENT
Author(s)
Taehwan Park, PhD;
St. John’s University, Pharmacy Administration and Public Health, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Queens, NY, USA
St. John’s University, Pharmacy Administration and Public Health, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Queens, NY, USA
Presentation Documents
OBJECTIVES: Mobile health apps can improve disease management, yet adoption remains limited. This study examined which attributes individuals prioritize when deciding whether to adopt a mobile health app.
METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 308 U.S. adults. Guided by behavioral and technology-acceptance theories, four attributes were examined: expected health benefits, usefulness, security, and ease of use. Preferences were elicited using best-worst scaling (BWS), in which respondents identified the most and least important attributes within a set, and a discrete choice experiment (DCE), in which respondents selected between two hypothetical app scenarios. Conditional and mixed logit models were used to estimate relative importance and preference heterogeneity.
RESULTS: Preferences varied by elicitation method and age group (< 40 years vs. ≥ 40 years). Across all methods and age groups, expected health benefit was the most preferred attribute. In the BWS analysis, security was ranked as more important than ease of use (relative importance [RI]: 24.2% vs. 15.6% among participants aged < 40 years; 27.7% vs. 16.7% among those aged ≥ 40 years), indicating that security was viewed as a salient feature when respondents explicitly evaluated app attributes. In contrast, DCE results showed that ease of use exerted a greater influence on choice behavior than security (RI: 25.0% vs. 3.8% among participants aged < 40 years; 25.0% vs. 20.9% among those aged ≥ 40 years), suggesting that usability plays a more decisive role when individuals make direct trade-offs between competing options. Age-specific patterns were also observed. Among participants < 40, usefulness ranked higher than security across both methods, whereas those ≥ 40 consistently ranked security higher than usefulness.
CONCLUSIONS: Expected health benefits drive mobile health app adoption across age groups, while usability and security influence decisions differently by context and age. Balancing ease of use and data protection is essential to enhance adoption.
METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 308 U.S. adults. Guided by behavioral and technology-acceptance theories, four attributes were examined: expected health benefits, usefulness, security, and ease of use. Preferences were elicited using best-worst scaling (BWS), in which respondents identified the most and least important attributes within a set, and a discrete choice experiment (DCE), in which respondents selected between two hypothetical app scenarios. Conditional and mixed logit models were used to estimate relative importance and preference heterogeneity.
RESULTS: Preferences varied by elicitation method and age group (< 40 years vs. ≥ 40 years). Across all methods and age groups, expected health benefit was the most preferred attribute. In the BWS analysis, security was ranked as more important than ease of use (relative importance [RI]: 24.2% vs. 15.6% among participants aged < 40 years; 27.7% vs. 16.7% among those aged ≥ 40 years), indicating that security was viewed as a salient feature when respondents explicitly evaluated app attributes. In contrast, DCE results showed that ease of use exerted a greater influence on choice behavior than security (RI: 25.0% vs. 3.8% among participants aged < 40 years; 25.0% vs. 20.9% among those aged ≥ 40 years), suggesting that usability plays a more decisive role when individuals make direct trade-offs between competing options. Age-specific patterns were also observed. Among participants < 40, usefulness ranked higher than security across both methods, whereas those ≥ 40 consistently ranked security higher than usefulness.
CONCLUSIONS: Expected health benefits drive mobile health app adoption across age groups, while usability and security influence decisions differently by context and age. Balancing ease of use and data protection is essential to enhance adoption.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2026-05, ISPOR 2026, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Value in Health, Volume 29, Issue S6
Code
MT14
Topic
Medical Technologies
Topic Subcategory
Digital Health
Disease
No Additional Disease & Conditions/Specialized Treatment Areas