Infectious Disease-Related Applications

Abstract

This study aims to identify and analyse the existing mobile applications for infectious diseases currently available for stakeholders in two major application stores: Google Play Store and Apps Store. The Google Play and Apps Store were searched between 15th June 2022 and 21st June 2022. The keywords used to search related applications on the infectious disease were “infectious disease,” “dengue,” “ebola,” “h1n1”, “influenza,” “Japanese encephalitis,” “MERSCOV,” “SARS,” “tuberculosis,” and “Covid-19”. The selection of the applications is based on the predefined inclusion criteria. Initially, two hundred eighty-three applications were identified, and 262 met the inclusion criteria. A total of 125 applications were sampled. The codes and themes were extracted from the description available in the application store. Information was recorded in Microsoft Excel. Finally, the existing application and its purpose were summarized and presented with descriptive statistics. The study discovered that the application was first released in 2011 for general infectious and significantly increased in 2020. Most applications were developed for multiple functions, mainly for general information, close contact notifications, self-reporting cases, and symptom tracking. This study provides an overview of infectious disease applications currently available regarding their purpose and the trend of the application released. It significantly contributes to mobile application research by providing the developers with an informed decision while designing infectious-related disease applications to suit the stakeholders' needs.