Relationship of mobile health app usage typologies with nutritional and health outcomes: Experience from India

Mobile health apps are popular, especially among young population, for achieving better nutrition and health behaviour. Despite their popularity, scant information is available regarding their effectiveness particularly in context of an emerging market like India. This paper identifies various user typologies based on health app usage and explores the association of these typologies with various nutrition and health outcomes. Using a novel research approach, we have identified user typologies using cluster analysis and compared these typologies in terms food consumption, nutrient intake, physical activity, physical performance and Body Mass Index. The results reveal significant differences among these typologies on basis of higher consumption of healthy food items such as Cauliflower (P<.001), Tomato (P= 0.01), Raisins (P<.001) and lower consumption of unhealthy food items such as chips(P<.001), pizza (P<.001), cold drinks (P<.001). A significant difference is also observed in time taken for touching toes (P=.048) and heart rate after jumping (P=.02). BMI measurements differed significantly (P=.01) across the user typologies. Long term and frequent use cluster exhibited better nutrition and health outcomes. We have used multivariate probit analysis and marginal effects to examine the influence of health app usage on BMI in presence of various control variables. In multivariate probit model, user typology exhibited a significant association (P=. 048) with BMI category even in the presence of control variables. Difference in usage pattern of health apps is significantly associated with different nutrition and health outcomes. Long term and regular use of health apps is recommended for achieving the potential benefits.