Background The World Health Organization has defined mobile health (mHealth) as the “use of mobile and wireless technologies to support the achievement of health objectives.” Smartphones currently represent one of the main media forms for mHealth democratization. Health apps can be an interesting tool for changing health behaviors. However, their use in France is still poorly documented. Objective The main aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of use of health apps among patients consulting in the primary care setting in France. The secondary aims were to evaluate the use of health apps according to the sociodemographic and medical characteristics of patients and to determine their use. Methods A population-based cross-sectional survey was carried out between November 2017 and January 2018 in the Grenoble area of France among patients aged between 18 and 69 years who were consulting at 13 primary care physician offices. Patients were provided with anonymous paper self-questionnaires. The main criterion for participation was the use of a smartphone health app, defined for the purpose of this study as any app supporting patients in efforts to be healthy. Results The participation rate was 49.27% (739/1500; 95% CI 46.7%-51.8%). The smartphone use was estimated at 82.6% (597/723; 95% CI 79.6%-85.2%). Of 597 smartphone owners, 47.7% (283/595; CI 43.6%-51.6%) used at least one smartphone health app. Health apps identified in this study were mainly related to wellness, prevention, and fitness (66.1%), as well as medication, treatments, and follow-up care (50.0%). The main factors associated with health app use were: use of social networks (odds ratio [OR] 3.4, 95% CI 2.1-5.3), age under 30 years (OR 2.7, CI 1.4-4.9), city size between 5001 and 10,000 inhabitants (OR 1.8, CI 1.1-2.8), and city size more than 10,000 inhabitants (OR 2.1, CI 1.4-3.2). Conclusions In this survey, nearly one out of two patients reported the use of smartphone health apps, which are currently focused on wellness, prevention, and fitness, and are largely used by the younger population. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03351491; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03351491

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BACKGROUND Smartphone health applications have proved their interest for changing health behaviors. Their use is yet faintly documented in France. OBJECTIVE The main objective was then to evaluate the frequency of use of health apps among patients consult-ing in primary care. The secondary objectives were to evaluate the use of health applications accord-ing to the sociodemographic and medical characteristics of patients and to determine their use. METHODS Population-based crossed-sectional survey carried out between November 2017 and January 2018 in Grenoble area, France, among patients ages between 18 and 69 consulting in 13 primary care physi-cian offices with anonymous paper self-questionnaires. The main criterion was the use of a smartphone health application. RESULTS The participation rate was 49.3% with 597 filled questionnaires. 47.6% (CI [43.6-51.6]) of the sam-ple used at least one smartphone health application. Used health apps were mainly related to well-being, prevention and fitness (66.1%), and to drugs, treatment and follow-up care (50.0%). The asso-ciation factors with the use of health apps were: the use of social networks (OR=3.36), the fact to be a woman (OR=1.77), an age under 30 (OR=2.68), the size of cities (OR=1,81 between 5,001 and 10,000 inhabitants and OR=2.10 for more than 10,000), and the fact to occupy and executive posi-tion, an intellectual profession or and intermediate occupation (OR=1.71). CONCLUSIONS The use of smartphone health application was almost one in two patients and is currently mainly limited to well-being, prevention and fitness in a young population. These tools would become more interesting by reaching a broader population. CLINICALTRIAL The protocol was registered on clinicaltrials.gov (Identifier: NCT03351491).