Patient-reported first-use usability of the noncommercial MyTARGET mobile application among adults with inflammatory bowel disease: a cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND

Mobile health applications may support self-management in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), but evidence on first-use experiences with disease-specific mobile health applications is limited.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate first-use usability of the noncommercial MyTARGET mobile application among adults with IBD in Germany and identify priorities for refinement.

METHODS

In this single-center cross-sectional usability survey, adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis installed MyTARGET on their own smartphones, received a 15-minute standardized introduction and independently explored the application for 45 min during one outpatient session. Participants completed a 13-item questionnaire adapted from the German Telehealth Usability Questionnaire on a 7-point Likert scale. Recommendation intention was assessed using the Net Promoter Score (NPS).

RESULTS

All 200 participants completed the questionnaire (mean age 39.1 years; SD, 14.0; 48.0% female); 127/200 (63.5%) had Crohn's disease and 73/200 (36.5%) had ulcerative colitis. Mean overall usability was 6.00 (SD, 0.57; 95% CI, 5.92-6.08). User-friendliness (mean, 6.65; SD, 0.61) and ease of learning (mean, 6.41; SD, 0.59) received the highest ratings, whereas error handling/troubleshooting (mean, 5.59; SD, 0.93) and perceived time savings were lower. The Net Promoter Score was +16 points. Overall usability correlated with recommendation score (Spearman ρ = 0.606; adjusted p < 0.001) and usefulness, interface quality and satisfaction/intention to use again showed stronger associations than user-friendliness.

CONCLUSIONS

MyTARGET showed high patient-reported first-use usability in this selected outpatient sample. The findings identify aspects that could inform future refinement and suggest that ease of use alone may not determine willingness to recommend an IBD app.