Health Apps: The solution for a healthier lifestyle?
These days there’s just about an app for everything, so what about an app that helps improve your health at the reach of your back pocket? One of the marvels of the 21st century, the smartphone has come to the limelight and with it, the plethora of mobile applications, or “apps” accessible at our fingertips. These days there’s just about an app for everything, setting your alarms, tracking your diet, searching the news, playing games; you name it, you got it. In the public health sphere, apps have also become an increasing area of interest, and at team BeUpstanding we have been exploring whether they might be a useful next step for helping work teams sit less and move more. At face value, mobile apps represent a very accessible and potentially cost-effective way of delivering health information and perhaps even more. As a result, there has been a boom in research regarding mobile applications and their effects on health outcomes. This article, written by Jason Lin as part his placement with the BeUpstanding team, provides a brief overview of the current evidence for mobile applications and what we might be able to look forward to in years to come. Scoping…