Health Apps Not a Popular Prescription for iPhone Users

(Oct. 22) -- Heaps of health-related apps, many of them from trusted sources and institutions, are available for iPhone users with little more than a few taps and a 99-cent payment.

But few people seem interested in getting medical input, fitness advice or diet tips from their smart phones, according to a new national poll of 3,001 adults by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Only 17 percent of cell phone users have sought health information on their phones, the study concluded. And a mere 9 percent take advantage of health apps on a routine basis.

Those are paltry percentages, especially considering that nearly 40 percent of American adults have downloaded smart phone apps.

African-Americans are most likely to download health apps, which researchers suspect is because they're less likely to have home-based Internet connections to research the requisite information.

"I don't have a single health app on my phone," Susannah Fox, the study's lead researcher, copped to NPR.

How to explain the dearth of health app downloads? A majority of cell phone owners might still prefer human interactions and computer-based Web connections to obtain health resources.

"Even with the proliferation of mobile and online opportunities, ... most adults' search for health information remains anchored in the offline world," the Pew report reads. The Internet plays a growing but still supplemental role -- and mobile connectivity has not changed that."

On a related note, a Nielsen poll released just this week concluded that one-third of iPad users had never downloaded an app. And even among those who had, games, news and books were the most popular purchases.

But health apps offer dynamic, on-the-go applicability that Web-based options simply can't. Apps exist to track workouts and calories, monitor vital signs, keep tabs on sun exposure or even compile and save personal health records.

That said, the proliferation of apps -- more than 300,000 are now available -- is still relatively recent. With younger adults more likely than older generations to harness the unique uses for smart phones, and apps still a work in progress, it's likely that personal health will become increasingly mobile. The very fact that there are so many health apps is a testament to the notion that at least some developers think they will eventually catch on.

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