Folk theorizing the quality and credibility of health apps

Increase in availability and accessibility of health apps raises important questions regarding strategies smartphone owners use to determine what health apps to download. As mobile health apps aim at helping users manage their healthy lifestyles and health conditions, it is important for researchers, developers, and educators to know how individuals find and assess the quality and credibility of these apps, and what guides their decisions to download and use them. We conducted semistructured interviews using the think-aloud technique with 19 community members in a U.S. Midwestern city and analyzed the data using open coding thematic analysis to determine how smartphone users assess health apps before downloading them. We find users determined app credibility through quick, but holistic cues based on the app’s features, and “borrowed” credibility decisions from friends or other health app users. App quality was often equated to personal preferences, that is, how the app met those preferences. Additional cues (cost, app size, order in App Store) led to download decisions but had nothing to do with quality or credibility. We categorized the findings as folk theories regarding quality and credibility of health apps and discuss them using information dual-processing models and media and technology literacy