Mobile Application and Patients Health

The impact mobile apps can have on our patient’s health
Sample
The study population is patients who are using mobile apps. The study sample will be recruited through convenience sampling from the metropolitan area. A multifaceted strategy will be used for the recruitment of study participants. Participants will be recruited through collaboration with healthcare professionals in the metropolitan areas. A radio station with a local audience of mature adults will also be used for the recruitment of participants. A static text advertisement will also be used and posted in various static areas in the metropolitan. The potential participant will be a person who has used a healthcare self-care mobile app for an average period of six months (Anderson, Burford & Emmerton, 2016).
Protection of Human Rights
For the various participant-recruitment strategies, participant consent will be sought in hand First, participant will be adults aged 18 years and above fluent in conversational English, and using a self-monitored health mobile app (Anderson et al., 2016). Participants will be informed on the objective of the research, what will be expected from them, and allowed to make the decision whether to participant or not. Additionally, participants will be informed of their ability to leave whenever they feel uncomfortable during the research process. Participants will not be identified through their real names, or any identifiable data. The data collected from the participants will not be shared, it will be used for the research, and it will be stored under lock-and-key in a safe for five years and destroyed thereafter (Pandey et al., 2013). The research process will be submitted for review and verification by the University Human Research Ethics Committee, and participants will be required to submit a signed form of informed consent prior to data collection. Everything done during the data collection process will be clearly explained to the participant.
Data Collection
Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews. For participants who are physically available to meet, the researcher will organize a face-to-face meeting for the interview. The meeting will be held in a public location where the participant is comfortable and feels safe and adequate privacy in sharing their experiences (Anderson et al., 2016). The preferred locations will be the participant’s office, home, or the local administrator offices. For participants who are unavailable for face-to-face interview, the questionnaires will be emailed to the participant through their convenient email address.
An interview will take less than 45 minutes; to fill the questionnaire will take less than 30 minutes. For face-to-face interviews, the interview will be audio-recorded for future transcription. For emailed questionnaires, participant will be allocated a week to complete and email the filled questionnaire back. The entire data collection process is projected to last for a period of 30 days.
Controls for Threats to Internal and External Validity
History
History is a threat to validity when external factors occur through the passage of time. To control this threat, the study will seek to recruit participants who have a minimum of 6 months using a particular health mobile app. The six months period is considered a considerable time for a user to get over the various external factors that might affect their experience with a mobile app (Gast & Ledford, 2014).
Maturation
This threat affects validity as a result of psychological and biological changes that might affect the experiences or opinions of a subject. To counter this threat, the research will only recruit participants who are 18 years and older (Gast & Ledford, 2014). In addition to this being considered the legal age among various jurisdictions, it is also a biologically appropriate age where participants are expected to be mature enough for standard responses.
Differential selection
This threat affected research validity when there are unequal and varied experiences and opinions among the selected sample. This threat was controlled trough the use of convenient sampling with a clear predetermined selection criterion for both those who might have negative experiences or positive experiences in using mobile apps.
Preconceptions and biases
This threat was controlled upon through the use of the information only and as provided by the participants (Gast & Ledford, 2014). Any information the researcher might posses on the research objective will only be used as follow up questions for the face-to-face interviews.


References
Anderson, K., Burford, O., & Emmerton, L. (2016). Mobile health apps to facilitate self-care: a qualitative study of user experiences. PLoS One, 11(5), e0156164.
Gast, D. L., & Ledford, J. R. (Eds.). (2014). “Applied research in education and behavioral sciences,” Single case research methodology: Applications in special education and behavioral sciences. Routledge.
Pandey, A., Hasan, S., Dubey, D., & Sarangi, S. (2013). Smartphone apps as a source of cancer information: changing trends in health information-seeking behavior. Journal of Cancer Education, 28(1), 138-142.