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Mosquito-borne arboviruses in Brazil: Assessment of apps based on the mobile apps rating scale (MARS)
Alves Albino, Victor Dutra Fernandes, Izabelly Almeida, Ricardo Santos-Silva, Tais Acácia Smania-Marques, Roberta Santos, Silvana
Alves Albino, Victor
Dutra Fernandes, Izabelly
Almeida, Ricardo
Santos-Silva, Tais Acácia
Smania-Marques, Roberta
Santos, Silvana
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2022-07-19
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Abstract
Background: In Brazil, the prevalence of arboviral diseases, such as dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya, transmitted mainly by mosquitos, has increased alarmingly. In recent years, numerous free mobile apps tackling this issue have become available for various purposes and users. Objectives: This study aimed to systematically survey and evaluate these apps using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS). Methods: The survey was performed on Google Play Store and sought to identify these apps adopting the descriptors “Chikungunya”, “Dengue” and “Zika”. The MARS scale was used by two researchers to evaluate the apps following their translation to Portuguese and subsequent validation. Student's T-test, Kappa statistics, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient were employed to evaluate the interobserver agreement and the reliability of the scale. Results: Most apps (20 out of 29 or ~70%) were created to disseminate basic information about arboviral diseases to the population or for entertainment. There was an agreement between the two researchers for all parameters of the MARS scale, except for the engagement (p=0.002). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient indicated good reliability. Conclusions: The use of the MARS scale has shown that most of the evaluated apps were developed to share information about arboviral diseases in an interactive way, but they do not necessarily have the purpose of influencing their users to change behaviours related to vector control or the prevention of arboviral diseases, which the authors feel would be a more appropriate aim for future app development.
Citation
Alves Albino, V., Dutra Fernandes, I., Almeida, R., Santos-Silva, T.A., Smania-Marques, R., Smith, M., Traxler, J. and Santos, S. (2022) Mosquito-Borne arboviruses in Brazil: Assessment of apps based on the mobile apps rating scale (MARS). Global Journal of Health Science, 14(8), pp. 16-28.
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Journal article
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en
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© 2022 The Authors. Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/gjhs/article/view/0/47502
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1916-9736
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This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) (Finance Code 001), Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (UEPB), Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa do Estado da Paraíba (FAPESQ) (Grant 02/2017 and CNPQ/FAPESQ/PPSUS - EDITAL 005/2020), British Council Newton Fund Institutional Links (Grant 274560199).