Mobile Health Apps Popular, but Efficacy in Question, Experts Say

A number of articles discussing how today's mobile healthcare apps are nice, but not effective...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110321/hl_ac/7982458_mobile_health_apps_arent_promoting_healthier_behavior
Leonardo De La Rocha writes in Yahoo News, that while there are over 8,000 mHealth apps in the various apps markets, many who download them, don't use them...According to a Pew Internet Research Study 26 percent of people who've downloaded them only use them once, and only two-thirds of people who have the apps use them as intended.

Loren Abroms, in the Journal of Preventative Medicine, reviewed smoking cessation apps "have low levels of adherence to key guidelines in the index. Few, if any, apps recommended or linked the user to proven treatments such as pharmacotherapy, counseling, and/or a quitline."

Margaret Morris, a senior researcher with Intel, speaking to a SXSW seminar said that to reliably change behaviors, health apps will have to account for variations in user motivations. "One of the landmines with developing and promoting health software is an assumption that people set health goals and follow them in a steadfast manner," adding, "But people have a lot of variation in motivation and we need to address the social and emotion[al] factors that affect motivation variation"