The Use of Health-related Mobile Apps Among Medical Student in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences: a Cross-Sectional Survey

Background: Constant development of technology effected on all aspects of life. The term of mHealth referred to use of mobile phone in health. Nowadays using mobile applications in the field of health and social life has been expanded. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate students use of mobile applications in the field of health. Materials/Patients and Methods: A survey of medical student was carried out within school of management and medical informatics within Tabriz. We use a questionnaire to ask from participant about the use of mobile application to support their education and practice activities. At the end of questionnaire we set an open question to explored the participant’s view on usefulness and useless of applications. The questionnaire consisted of 13 questions. Questions were derived from earlier works and the researcher’s personal skill and that of other informants. The validity and reliability of questionnaire was approved by previous studies. Results: In total, 157 respondents participated in this survey. The response rate was 78.5%. About 95% of respondent used a smartphone, of which the android and iOS systems were the most widely used (80.2% and 12% respectively). About half of the participant stated using apps in education and practice field. The most area for using apps were educational and communications field (67% for both). The most frequently used app types were web access, dictionary and health apps (44%, 37.4%, and 25.5% respectively). The mean duration of using the application in education and practice were 15-30 and 15 minutes per day respectively. Conclusion: based on our result, there is a high level of smartphone usage among medical student. Need to design research and educational apps be strongly felt.