We have been told that today’s computers and televisions encourage a lazier and less healthy individual. The argument is that it is easier to sit on the couch or in a recliner and watch countless episodes of American Idol or Survivor while we play on our laptop, tablet or smartphone than it is to exercise. But recent research has revealed a very positive trend in smartphone use and applications. Mobile health adoption is drastically up across the United States, and appears to be growing.
The recent Pew Internet study offers some hope for the future of American smartphone users regarding their health. Entitled Mobile Health 2012, the revealing research released last month after surveying over 3,000 US adults in August and September of 2012 put forth some very clear trends. As smartphone adoption in the United States grows, more and more Americans are accessing mobile health applications, with female smartphone users slightly more inclined than male smartphone users to do so.
The study was conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, and showed that more than 45% of all Americans own smartphones. Those in urban areas with a college education and a yearly income of more than $75,000 are more inclined to own a smartphone, and a full 52% of all American smartphone owners use their handset to look up medical information. More importantly, 1 in 5 smartphone users have downloaded at least one mobile health application.
In what is not a surprising statistic, those US smartphone owners under 50 are four times more likely to download a mobile health application than those over 65. Senior citizens tend to use their handset to place and receive voice calls only, and that is probably the reason for this disparity. Abbreviated as mHealth, mobile health is defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as “the use of mobile and wireless devices to improve health outcomes, healthcare services and health research.”
In the past, smartphones were really only available to those who could shell out several hundred dollars for the purchase price. And since minority populations and others that are “underserved” by the healthcare industry tend towards the lower end of the economic measuring stick in America, many could not afford a smartphone. But with phones like the Motorola Droid Razr M 4G available from select retailers for the nearly free price of one penny on contract, US smartphone ownership and mobile health access are likely to grow at a healthy rate in 2013.
