An Integrated mHealth App for Dengue Reporting and Mapping, Health Communication, and Behavior Modification: Development and Assessment of Mozzify

Von Ralph Dane Marquez Herbuela, Tomonori Karita, Micanaldo Ernesto Francisco, Kozo Watanabe, Von Ralph Dane Marquez Herbuela, Tomonori Karita, Micanaldo Ernesto Francisco, Kozo Watanabe

Abstract

Background: For the last 10 years, mobile phones have provided the global health community with innovative and cost-effective strategies to address the challenges in the prevention and management of dengue fever.

Objective: The aim is to introduce and describe the design and development process of Mozzify, an integrated mobile health (mHealth) app that features real-time dengue fever case reporting and mapping system, health communication (real-time worldwide news and chat forum/timeline, within-app educational videos, links to local and international health agency websites, interactive signs and symptoms checker, and a hospital directions system), and behavior modification (reminders alert program on the preventive practices against dengue fever). We also aim to assess Mozzify in terms of engagement and information-sharing abilities, functionality, aesthetics, subjective quality, and perceived impact.

Methods: The main goals of the Mozzify app were to increase awareness, improve knowledge, and change attitudes about dengue fever, health care-seeking behavior, and intention-to-change behavior on preventive practices for dengue fever among users. It was assessed using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) among 50 purposively sampled individuals: public health experts (n=5), environment and health-related researchers (n=23), and nonclinical (end users) participants (n=22).

Results: High acceptability and excellent satisfaction ratings (mean scores ≥4.0 out of 5) based on the MARS subscales indicate that the app has excellent user design, functionality, usability, engagement, and information among public health experts, environment and health-related researchers, and end users. The app's subjective quality (recommending the app to other people and the app's overall star rating), and specific quality (increase awareness, improve knowledge, and change attitudes about dengue fever; health care-seeking behavior; and intention-to-change behavior on preventive practices for dengue fever) also obtained excellent satisfaction ratings from the participants. Some issues and suggestions were raised during the focus group and individual discussions regarding the availability of the app for Android devices, language options limitations, provision of predictive surveillance, and inclusion of other mosquito-borne diseases.

Conclusions: Mozzify may be a promising integrated strategic health intervention system for dengue fever case reporting and mapping; increase awareness, improve knowledge, and change attitude about dengue fever; and disseminating and sharing information on dengue fever among the general population and health experts. It also can be an effective aid in the successful translation of knowledge on preventive measures against dengue fever to practice.

Keywords: behavior modification; dengue fever; health communication; mHealth; real-time surveillance.

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

©Von Ralph Dane Marquez Herbuela, Tomonori Karita, Micanaldo Ernesto Francisco, Kozo Watanabe. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (http://formative.jmir.org), 08.01.2020.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mozzify’s three components with their corresponding features and goals. DF: dengue fever; DOH: Department of Health; WHO: World Health Organization.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Screenshots of the Mozzify app. (a) Real-time dengue fever cases and mosquito bite reporting and mapping, (b) dengue fever hotspots, (c) within-app educational videos, (d) worldwide news and health agencies websites, (e) chat forum (timeline), (f) symptoms checker, (g) hospital directions, and (h) reminders alert program.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean scores of app objective subscales based on the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) from public health experts, environment and health-related researchers, and nonclinical participants.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mean scores of app objective, subjective, specific, and general rating based on the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) from public health experts, environment and health-related researchers, and nonclinical participants.

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Source: PubMed

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