Use of and interest in mobile health for XXXX self-care in vulnerable populations.

@entity1 @entity3881 @entity6
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess use of and interest in mobile health (mHealth) technology and in- @entity1 services for @entity6 self-care in vulnerable populations. METHODS: We delivered a self-administered cross-sectional survey. @entity1 were recruited at two primary care practices ( @entity3881 ) with P1 located in a medically underserved area and P2 in an affluent suburb. Two-sample t-tests and chi-square tests were used with p   <   0.05 significant. In addition, a secondary analysis was performed to analyse differences in use and interest in mHealth by age. RESULTS: Of 75 eligible @entity1 , 60 completed the survey (80% response rate). P1 @entity1 had significantly higher interest in three of five categories of in- @entity1 @entity6 support services, one of four categories of health-related text messages (TM), and three of eight categories of mHealth applications (p   <   0.05). Smartphone users reported higher interest in TM (p   =   0.004) and mHealth applications for @entity6 self-care (p   =   0.004). Younger @entity1 were more likely to have a smartphone (p   <   0.006), use the Internet (p   <   0.0012), use smartphone applications (p   <   0.0004), and to be interested in using applications to manage their @entity6 (p   <   0.004). DISCUSSION: This study shows substantial @entity1 interest in TM and mHealth applications for @entity6 self-care and suggests that @entity1 in underserved areas may have particularly high interest in using mHealth solutions in primary care. Younger @entity1 and smartphone users were more likely to be interested in using applications to manage their @entity6 . As more @entity1 use smartphones, interest in using mHealth to support @entity1 self-care and strengthen primary care infrastructure will continue to grow.
