Patient Attitudes and Their Awareness Towards Skin Cancer-Related Apps: Cross-Sectional Survey

Background: In the emerging era of digitalization and electronic health, skin cancer-related apps represent useful tools to support dermatologic consultation and examination. Yet, little is known about how patients perceive the value of such apps. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate patient attitudes and their awareness toward skin cancer-related apps. Methods: A cross-sectional study including 200 patients from the oncological outpatient unit was conducted at the University Hospital (LMU Munich, Germany) between September and December 2018. Patients were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire on the popularity and usefulness of health-related and skin cancer-related apps. A descriptive analysis was performed with the expression of categorical variables as frequencies and percentages. For continuous variables, the median and range were indicated. Contingency tables and chi-square tests were performed to investigate associations between sociodemographic data and selected items of the questionnaire. Results: A total of 98.9% (195/197) of patients had never used skin cancer-related apps or could not remember. In 49.7% (93/187) of cases, patients were unsure about the usefulness of skin cancer apps, whereas 42.6% (78/183) thought that skin cancer apps could supplement or support the professional skin examination performed by a physician. However, 47.9% (90/188) were interested in acquiring more information by their dermatologists about skin cancer apps. Young age (P=.002), male gender (P=.02), a previous history of melanoma (P=.004), and higher educational level (P=.002) were significantly associated with a positive attitude. Nevertheless, 55.9% (105/188) preferred a printed patient brochure on skin cancer to downloading and using an app. Conclusions: The experience and knowledge of skin cancer-related apps was surprisingly low in this population, although there was a high general interest in more information about such apps. Printed patient brochures were the preferred information source.