When choosing a digital health app, security comes first...Too frequent notifications are less popular

Jul 07, 2025

When choosing a digital health application, it was found that the most secure app was preferred.

A research team led by Professor Shin Jae-yong, Dr. Lee Joon-bok, Research Professor Choi Min-ji, and Professor Kim Jeong-hyun of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies announced on the 7th that doctors, chronic patients, and the general public all picked cybersecurity and personal information safety as the most important factors when choosing digital health applications.

The results of this study were published in the international journal of digital healthcare 'npj Digital Medicine (IF 12.4)'.

Various applications that help individuals manage their health are being released. Digital Therapeutics, which has been licensed by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for proving its therapeutic effect beyond simple applications, are being used in the medical field. A typical area is the treatment of insomnia.

The research team investigated which factors users most importantly looked at when choosing digital health applications.

In this study, a large-scale survey was conducted on a total of 1,093 doctors, 589 patients with chronic diseases, and 407 people in general.

The analysis method used a choice-based conjoint analysis. It has the advantage of providing a virtual scenario so that consumers can compare and select each condition when choosing a service or product to check the actual decision-making process.

Participants in the study receive information on six conditions for the health app. The six conditions are ▲ the number of papers proving the effectiveness of the app ▲ the number of health contents sent such as card news and video ▲ the level of personal information protection and data security ▲ the satisfaction felt by other users ▲ whether the app is certified by the government or not ▲ monthly usage fees. Participants had to choose one of two options for apps with six different conditions each time, and they made this choice 15 times in total.

All three groups of doctors, chronically ill people, and the general public considered 'cybersecurity and personal information safety' as the most important factors. Next, the number of papers proving the effectiveness of the application, user satisfaction, and government certification were in order. Applications that send health information too often have fallen out of favor.

Chronic patients preferred applications that proved their effectiveness or were certified by the government compared to the general public. Physicians preferred applications with higher user satisfaction or demonstrated the effectiveness of applications compared to other groups.

Professor Shin Jae-yong said "Security is important because health information is sensitive personal information" and "The results of this study that doctors, chronically ill patients, and the general public all value security reflect these characteristics of health information."