Assessment of the use and awareness of health applications among the public in Najran City, Saudi Arabia: A cross sectional study

Objectives: To explore the awareness and use of health applications among general public in Najran city, Saudi Arabia. Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional used convenience random sampling technique to select 351 participants of general population of Najran City. They answered an electronic survey to collect data on their socio-demographic characteristics and the types of mobile applications they used. The data were analyzed using SPSSS version 24. Results: The majority of study participants were male (76.6%) and were aged between 21 and 30 years (53.8%). The majority of participants (97.7%) owned a smartphone, but the mobile applications they used the most were social media applications (68.4%) and that the usage of health applications was very low (15.1%). Of those that were used, the most common were fitness and exercise apps (83.9%), diet and nutrition apps (5.6%), body mass index apps (3.7.%), and quit-smoking apps (5.6%). Conclusion: The use of social media applications was significantly higher than the use of health applications among study participants. Despite the growing number of Health apps, the level of awareness and usability of such apps was still relatively low. In order to increase the use of health apps among public, it is important to first increase awareness and knowledge of these apps benefit on health.