mHealth Applications: Problems, Challenges, and Future Direction

This thesis analyzes the problems and barriers encountered by users of mHealth applications for overall wellness, disease management or intervention. There has been an increase in the utilization of mHealth applications to analyze data collected from users to help them manage their disease and improve health outcomes. The data collected assist the development and modification of mHealth applications so that the general public can benefit from those applications. Problems and barriers, such as language and behavioral barriers, unfamiliarity with mobile technology and technical difficulties that have been encountered by users, have not been addressed by current studies. The aim of this thesis research is to identify and better understand those problems and barriers, and propose future research and practical directions. The results of this research suggest that studies should focus on the problems and barriers that are faced by users to improve the benefits of the disease management/intervention.