Understanding Health App Usage Through Data and Recommendation for Future Design

The Covid-19 induced social isolation has resulted in an increase in the adoption of digital technology as a means for providing physical and mental healthcare. Additionally, while the internet has been beneficial in providing many services during the pandemic, its uncontrolled use leads to health risks in the form of internet addiction in individuals, particularly adolescents. This thesis aims to understand the users and their objective usage of physical and mental health apps while also presenting a theory-informed approach taking the case of internet addiction as a case study. Statistical analysis tools such as chi-squared tests and Mann-Whitney U test are utilized to study the change in usage of health apps before and during Covid. Furthermore, clustering analysis is used to identify the user archetypes of health apps and the interactions within family internet addiction. The results from the analyses showed the change in usage amongst health app users during Covid-19; however, the user engagement and retention for health apps were minimal. Further results also identified two mental health user archetypes and three physical health user archetypes based on personality, average usage, and satisfaction with life. Identifying these user archetypes may help app developers distinguish who the users of health apps are and may increase user engagement with health apps. The study results found three different interactions based on the interplay between parents’ internet addiction, adolescent internet addiction, internet parenting types, and parent-child conflict. Experts can use the interactions to develop effective intervention and prevention strategies aimed at parents and adolescents to reduce adolescent IA.