Background: The availability and use of health apps continues to increase, revolutionizing the way mobile health interventions are delivered. Apps are increasingly used to prevent disease, improve well-being, and promote healthy behavior. On a similar rise is the incidence of skin cancers. Much of the underlying risk can be prevented through behavior change and adequate sun protection. Self-monitoring apps have the potential to facilitate prevention by measuring risk (eg, sun intensity) and encouraging protective behavior (eg, seeking shade). Objective: Our aim was to assess health care consumer preferences for sun protection with a self-monitoring app that tracks the duration and intensity of sun exposure and provides feedback on when and how to protect the skin. Methods: We conducted an unlabeled discrete choice experiment with 8 unique choice tasks, in which participants chose among 2 app alternatives, consisting of 5 preidentified 2-level attributes (self-monitoring method, privacy control, data sharing with health care provides, reminder customizability, and costs) that were the result of a multistep and multistakeholder qualitative approach. Participant preferences, and thus, the relative importance of attributes and their levels were estimated using conditional logit modeling. Analyses consisted of 200 usable surveys, yielding 3196 observations. Results: Our respondents strongly preferred automatic over manually operated self-monitoring (odds ratio [OR] 2.37, 95% CI 2.06-2.72) and no cost over a single payment of 3 Swiss francs (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.49-1.99). They also preferred having over not having the option of sharing their data with a health care provider of their choice (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.40-1.97), repeated over single user consents, whenever app data are shared with commercial thirds (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.31-1.88), and customizable over noncustomizable reminders (OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.09-1.54). While most participants favored thorough privacy infrastructures, the attribute of privacy control was a relatively weak driver of app choice. The attribute of self-monitoring method significantly interacted with gender and perceived personal usefulness of health apps, suggesting that female gender and lower perceived usefulness are associated with relatively weaker preferences for automatic self-monitoring. Conclusions: Based on the preferences of our respondents, we found that the utility of a self-monitoring sun protection app can be increased if the app is simple and adjustable; requires minimal effort, time, or expense; and has an interoperable design and thorough privacy infrastructure. Similar features might be desirable for preventive health apps in other areas, paving the way for future discrete choice experiments. Nonetheless, to fully understand these preference dynamics, further qualitative or mixed method research on mobile self-monitoring-based sun protection and broader preventive mobile self-monitoring is required.

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中文翻译：

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防晒的自我监控应用程序首选项：离散选择实验调查分析

背景：健康应用程序的可用性和使用不断增加，彻底改变了提供移动健康干预措施的方式。应用程序越来越多地用于预防疾病，改善健康状况和促进健康行为。类似的上升是皮肤癌的发生率。可以通过改变行为和适当的防晒措施来预防很多潜在的风险。自我监控应用程序具有通过测量风险（例如，日照强度）和鼓励保护行为（例如，寻找阴影）来促进预防的潜力。目标：我们的目的是通过一个自我监控应用程序来评估医疗保健消费者对防晒的偏爱，该应用程序可以跟踪日晒的持续时间和强度，并提供有关何时以及如何保护皮肤的反馈。方法：我们进行了8种独特选择任务的无标签离散选择实验，参与者从2种应用程序选择中进行选择，这些选择由5种预先确定的2级属性（自我监控方法，隐私控制，与医疗保健提供的数据共享，提醒可自定义性和成本）是多步骤和多利益相关方定性方法的结果。参与者的偏好，以及因此，属性的相对重要性及其级别是使用条件logit建模估算的。分析包括200个可用的调查，产生3196个观测值。结果：与自动操作的自我监控相比，我们的受访者更偏爱自动进行自我监控（赔率[OR] 2.37，95％CI 2.06-2.72），单次付款3瑞士法郎就不会产生成本（OR 1.72，95％CI 1.49-1.99） 。他们还更倾向于不选择与自己选择的医疗保健提供者共享数据（OR 1.66，95％CI 1.40-1.97），每当与商业第三方共享应用程序数据时，都应在单用户同意下重复（OR 1.57） ，95％CI 1.31-1.88）和可自定义的提醒（或1.30、95％CI 1.09-1.54）。虽然大多数参与者都喜欢使用透彻的隐私基础结构，但是隐私控制的属性是应用程序选择的相对较弱的驱动力。自我监控方法的属性与性别以及健康应用程序对个人的实用性有显着的相互作用，这表明女性性别和较低的实用性与自动自我监控的相对较弱的偏好相关。结论：根据受访者的偏好，我们发现，如果简单易用，可以提高自我监控防晒应用程序的实用性；需要最少的精力，时间或费用；并具有可互操作的设计和完善的隐私基础结构。类似的功能对于其他领域的预防性健康应用可能是理想的，这为将来的离散选择实验铺平了道路。但是，要完全了解这些偏好动态，需要对基于移动自我监控的防晒和更广泛的预防性移动自我监控进行进一步的定性或混合方法研究。为未来的离散选择实验铺平了道路。但是，要完全了解这些偏好动态，需要对基于移动自我监控的防晒和更广泛的预防性移动自我监控进行进一步的定性或混合方法研究。为未来的离散选择实验铺平了道路。但是，要完全了解这些偏好动态，需要对基于移动自我监控的防晒和更广泛的预防性移动自我监控进行进一步的定性或混合方法研究。

这仅仅是抽象的。阅读JMIR网站上的全文。JMIR是互联网时代电子健康和医疗保健领域领先的开放获取期刊。