Title: An evaluation of released mobile health apps in popular Iranian app stores

Authors: Hamid Naderi; Kobra Etminani

Addresses: Department of Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran ' Department of Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract: The rapid growth in development and using mobile health applications had significant potential in the field of health. The study objective was to describe apps in the most popular Iranian Android and iOS app stores. Detail information of apps was extracted, categorised by subject and descriptive analyses were done. 3,331 Android and 277 iOS apps were remained for study. 88% of popular Android mHealth apps were free on the other hand, 70% of popular iOS apps were paid. The average price of Android and iOS paid apps were $0.37 and $6.55. The average of rating value for all Android subcategories (total average 4.33) is higher than iOS subcategories (total average 3.58). Our study confirmed fitness was the most popular topic. The average of rating value for all Android subcategories was higher than iOS subcategories. It seems large number of mHealth app users preferred using applications which can update their content continuously.

Keywords: mHealth; mobile applications; descriptive analysis; Iranian app stores.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEI.2019.104961

International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, 2019 Vol.11 No.4, pp.320 - 329

Received: 05 Jul 2017
Accepted: 30 Nov 2017

Published online: 10 Feb 2020 *

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