Oral-Hygiene-Related Mobile Apps in the French App Stores: Assessment of Functionality and Quality

Florence Carrouel, Denis Bourgeois, Céline Clément, Delphine Tardivo, Prescilla Martinon, Sébastien Guiral, Romain Lan, Stéphane Viennot, Claude Dussart and Laurie Fraticelli
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Florence Carrouel: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Denis Bourgeois: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Céline Clément: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Delphine Tardivo: Laboratory Anthropology, Health Law, and Medical Ethics, UMR 7268, Aix-Marseille University 2, 13344 Marseille, France
Prescilla Martinon: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Sébastien Guiral: Laboratory Molecular Microbiology and Structural Biochemistry (MMSB), UMR 5086 CNRS/University of Lyon, 69367 Lyon, France
Romain Lan: Laboratory Anthropology, Health Law, and Medical Ethics, UMR 7268, Aix-Marseille University 2, 13344 Marseille, France
Stéphane Viennot: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Claude Dussart: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Laurie Fraticelli: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-14

Abstract: Mobile health apps can contribute to increased quality of individual oral hygiene behaviors. This study provides an overview and an evaluation of quality of oral-hygiene-related mobile apps currently available in Google Play Store and the French Apple App. A shortlist of nine apps was assessed by 10 oral health professionals using the Mobile App Rating Scale. Intraclass correlation was used to evaluate interrater agreement. Best quality scores were obtained by Oral-B (3.4 ± 0.97), Colgate Connect (3.20 ± 0.63), and Preventeeth (3.10 ± 1.1) and worst ones by Mimizaur se brosse les dents (1.80 ± 0.79) and Kolibree (2.30 ± 0.82). The subjective quality scores ranged from 2.62 ± 0.61 (Oral-B) to 1.5 ± 0.61 (MSD). Specificity of the content ranged from 3.46 ± 0.84 (Preventeeth) to 1.78 ± 0.47 ( Mimizaur se brosse les dents ). Thus, even if oral health professionals positively evaluated the quality of oral-hygiene-related mobile apps, they are less assertive concerning their impact on the user’s knowledge, attitudes, and intentions to change, as well as the likelihood of actual change in the oral hygiene behavior. Further investigations are needed to assess whether information from these apps is consistent with oral hygiene recommendations and to determine the long-term impacts of these apps.

Keywords: oral health; education; health promotion; mobile app; prevention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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