(P02-073-25) Mobile Health Apps Interest, Use, and Preferences in Minnesota Rural-Urban Residents

Objectives: Rural residents have limited access to nutrition resources compared to their urban counterparts, partly driven by lack of specialty healthcare services. While mobile health (mHealth) apps are potential scalable solutions, little is known if the use and preferences for these apps differ by place of residence. We compared app usage and attitudes toward mobile nutrition apps between rural and urban Midwestern residents.

Methods: 393 participants (mean age: 50±17.2y, 81 rural, 322 urban) completed a 32-item survey at the State Fair. Participants were classified as living in rural or urban areas using Minnesota Geospatial Commons designations. A subset of survey items was included in the analysis: 1) mobile nutrition app interest, 2) frequency of mHealth app use, 3) factors influencing use (e.g., cost, user ratings), and 4) feature preferences (e.g., nutrition education, diet tracking). Items related to interest and frequency were assessed using a 5-point scale, with a higher number indicating greater interest and use. Factors influencing use and feature preferences were assessed with yes/no. Unadjusted logistic regression was conducted to determine differences in responses between rural-urban classification. Analyses were conducted in RStudio (version 4.2.3).

Results: No statistically significant associations were observed in models testing mobile app interest to improve diet or the frequency of app use between rural and urban residents (p > 0.05). Rural participants were nearly twice as likely to prioritize user reviews [OR = 1.96 (95% CI: 1.09, 3.51), p < 0.05] but had 54% lower odds of downloading apps recommended by their social network [OR = 0.46 (95% CI: 0.25, 0.84), p < 0.05]. There were no other statistically significant associations observed of factors influencing app preferences (p > 0.05).

Conclusions: Level of interest and use in mHealth apps, as well as feature preferences, were similar between rural and urban residents, suggesting that mHealth apps can be developed that meet the preferences of both populations. Incorporating user reviews may be a potential strategy to encourage mHealth use in rural areas.

Funding Sources: Funding for this research was supported by the Masonic Cancer Center.