Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Apr 11;7(4):e11500.
doi: 10.2196/11500.

The mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ): Development and Validation Study

Leming Zhou  1 , Jie Bao  1 , I Made Agus Setiawan  1   2 , Andi Saptono  1 , Bambang Parmanto  1
Affiliations

The mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ): Development and Validation Study

Leming Zhou et al. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. .

Abstract

Background: After a mobile health (mHealth) app is created, an important step is to evaluate the usability of the app before it is released to the public. There are multiple ways of conducting a usability study, one of which is collecting target users' feedback with a usability questionnaire. Different groups have used different questionnaires for mHealth app usability evaluation: The commonly used questionnaires are the System Usability Scale (SUS) and Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ). However, the SUS and PSSUQ were not designed to evaluate the usability of mHealth apps. Self-written questionnaires are also commonly used for evaluation of mHealth app usability but they have not been validated.

Objective: The goal of this project was to develop and validate a new mHealth app usability questionnaire.

Methods: An mHealth app usability questionnaire (MAUQ) was designed by the research team based on a number of existing questionnaires used in previous mobile app usability studies, especially the well-validated questionnaires. MAUQ, SUS, and PSSUQ were then used to evaluate the usability of two mHealth apps: an interactive mHealth app and a standalone mHealth app. The reliability and validity of the new questionnaire were evaluated. The correlation coefficients among MAUQ, SUS, and PSSUQ were calculated.

Results: In this study, 128 study participants provided responses to the questionnaire statements. Psychometric analysis indicated that the MAUQ has three subscales and their internal consistency reliability is high. The relevant subscales correlated well with the subscales of the PSSUQ. The overall scale also strongly correlated with the PSSUQ and SUS. Four versions of the MAUQ were created in relation to the type of app (interactive or standalone) and target user of the app (patient or provider). A website has been created to make it convenient for mHealth app developers to use this new questionnaire in order to assess the usability of their mHealth apps.

Conclusions: The newly created mHealth app usability questionnaire-MAUQ-has the reliability and validity required to assess mHealth app usability.

Keywords: mobile apps; questionnaire design; reliability and validity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A flow chart of the new usability questionnaire development and validation. mHealth: mobile health; s: number of statements; s1: number of statements in the questionnaire for interactive mobile apps; s2: number of statements in the questionnaire for standalone mobile apps.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kao C, Liebovitz DM. Consumer Mobile Health Apps: Current State, Barriers, and Future Directions. PM R. 2017 May;9(5S):S106–S115. doi: 10.1016/j.pmrj.2017.02.018.S1934-1482(17)30382-9 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Roess A. The Promise, Growth, and Reality of Mobile Health - Another Data-free Zone. N Engl J Med. 2017 Nov 23;377(21):2010–2011. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1713180. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Parmanto B, Pramana G, Yu DX, Fairman AD, Dicianno BE, McCue MP. iMHere: A Novel mHealth System for Supporting Self-Care in Management of Complex and Chronic Conditions. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2013 Jul 11;1(2):e10. doi: 10.2196/mhealth.2391. http://mhealth.jmir.org/2013/2/e10/ v1i2e10 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fairman AD, Dicianno BE, Datt N, Garver A, Parmanto B, McCue M. Outcomes of Clinicians, Caregivers, Family Members and Adults with Spina Bifida Regarding Receptivity to use of the iMHere mHealth Solution to Promote Wellness. Int J Telerehabil. 2013 Jun;5(1):3–16. doi: 10.5195/ijt.2013.6116. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/25945209 v5n1-art-10.5195-ijt.2013.6116 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Seto E, Leonard KJ, Cafazzo JA, Barnsley J, Masino C, Ross HJ. Perceptions and experiences of heart failure patients and clinicians on the use of mobile phone-based telemonitoring. J Med Internet Res. 2012;14(1):e25. doi: 10.2196/jmir.1912. http://www.jmir.org/2012/1/e25/ v14i1e25 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms