Mobile wellness application-seeking behavior by college students-An exploratory study

This research explored the mobile wellness application-seeking behavior of college students. In particular, it examined what sources students used to obtain wellness information, what wellness applications students used and for what purposes, how they learned about those applications, and what factors influenced their decision to choose a particular wellness application from multiple alternatives. The results indicated that students most often used websites as sources of wellness information, followed by mobile applications, family and friends, and then physicians. Students most often learned about wellness applications from search engines and application stores. Physicians were the least mentioned source of learning about mobile wellness applications. The most popular application type was calorie and activity trackers. In addition, when asked to rate the importance of various mobile application characteristics in their decision to select a particular wellness application, students rated usability-related characteristics the highest, followed by application cost and content quality. This study contributes to current research and practice in mobile wellness application design and the provision of mobile wellness services. In particular, it can inform application designers and intermediaries about which mobile wellness applications students use, and how students search for and select those applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.