Apps for Covid-19 in Germany: assessment using the German Mobile App Rating Scale

Holl, Felix; Flemisch, Fabian; Swoboda, Walter und Schobel, Johannes (2022): Apps for Covid-19 in Germany: assessment using the German Mobile App Rating Scale. In: Jamia Open, Bd. 5, Nr. 4, ooac082

Abstract

Lay Summary The Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has put healthcare systems around the globe under immense pressure and many mobile health (mHealth) apps were developed to help control the spread. This study gives overview of the Covid-19 apps in Germany and rates them with a standardized instrument.Six apps were included in the analysis: Corona-Warn-App, Corona Health App, luca app, NINA app, SafeVac app, and STIKO app.The overall quality of the 6 rated apps was good. The review showed that despite the excellent quality in aspects like information and functionality, there is still a gap in the engagement section. To motivate more people to use the Covid-19 apps, new ideas are needed, besides more information and education about the functionality of the apps, to gain trust in app developers and raise the number of downloads.The findings from the study highlight the feasibility of quickly developing mHealth apps as a tool when responding to rapidly emerging health threads like a pandemic. It is important to pay attention to an app design that engages the user to use the app to ensure high utilization. Especially for communicable health treads, where contact tracing is important, high utilization is key. Objective The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of apps to help control the spread of Covid-19 in Germany and rate them according to standardized instruments. Materials and methods The Apple App Store and Google Play Store were systematically searched to identify apps dealing with Covid-19 in Germany. The German Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS-G) was used to independently assess app quality by 2 trained reviewers. Results Overall, the quality of the 6 rated apps was good with a mean score of 4.15 (3.88-4.34). The best-rated apps were NINA app (4.34) and Corona Health App (4.29). The best-rated sections were functionality (4.40), aesthetic (4.25), and information (4.25). In contrast, the worst-rated section was engagement (3.63). Even though some of the apps were used by more people than others, there was no correlation between the MARS-G rating and app store rating. In addition, the MARS-G proved to be effective even with rating apps, which have different goals and methods to achieve them. Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first study that identified and evaluated German Covid-19 mobile health apps available in the German app stores. The review shows that despite the excellent quality in aspects like information and functionality, there is still a gap in the engagement section. To motivate more people to use the Covid-19 apps, new ideas are needed, besides more information and education about the functionality of the apps, to gain trust in app developers and raise the number of downloads.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Medizin
• Themengebiete: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften > 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
• Sprache: Englisch