mHealth Assessment Page 1

mHealth Assessment

Jasmine Avalos Barajas

California State University, Channel Islands

HLTH 302: Intro Health Care Informatics

Dr. Berkowsky

Spring 2020
mHealth Assessment Page 2

mHealth Assessment

The mobile health application that I decided to evaluate was the diet and macro tracking

application Lifesum. Lifesum is a mobile application primarily used to track caloric intake for

individuals trying to lose weight, but it can be utilized by people who are looking to maintain

their current weight or even gain weight. This application in addition to counting calories has

many features including a personalized recommendation for the number of calories you should

consume in a day, body stats, scanning features for pre-packaged food items, free

recipes, allowed for customized food preferences such as; vegan, vegetarian, and pescatarian.

There is also a feature to indicate certain food allergies such as; gluten, wheat, milk (Lactose

intolerance), eggs, shellfish, fish, and nuts. I thought that this application offered many superior

features, seeing as this was a free app. Lifesum offers a premium account, for an added fee there

are more features that are available, for instance, an assortment of diet plans with unique

qualities like paleo, keto, high protein, fasting, and sugar detox, to name a few.

Lifesum Application

         I used Lifesum strictly every day for approximately 2 weeks, and within those 2 weeks, I

came to find that this was an outstanding mobile health application. This app is available for both

iPhone and Android phones and was compatible with various smartwatches like apple watch,

Fitbit, and many more. I found the Lifesum application to be user friendly and simple to use

without forfeiting the personalization functions that can be tailored for each user exclusively.

One feature I enjoyed using was the water tracking, I found that this feature motivated me to

drink more water throughout the day, seeing as I was able to visually see how many ounces I was

consuming. Another feature that I found extremely helpful was the synchronization of my fitness

activity from my smartwatch that would be automatically recorded onto the Lifesum application.
mHealth Assessment Page 3

Additionally, the food scanner feature was very practical and cut down the time it would take to

input your snacks, meals, or beverages.

         Initially, when I began to track my caloric intake and exercise activity with the Lifesum

application I found it to be a tad time-consuming. However, as I kept tracking food items in the

app for the next 2 weeks, I found that my meals became faster to track for the reason that I was

utilizing more features, in particular, the scanning feature, also the application would keep track

of the food items that I would frequently consume and allowed me to “favorite” them for easy

access.  Nevertheless, there were a few things that I did not like about this application that should

be addressed. There was a great deal of notifications that this application would alert me on at

first, however, I was able to turn the notifications off completely or pick and choose what I

wanted to be notified on. An approach that I would take in order to improve the Lifesum

application would be to include weekly grocery shopping lists. Many individuals feel intimidated

and out of their element when they first begin to grocery shop for themselves, so this would be a

useful feature to add and appeal to new demographic. I would also adjust the time frame allotted

for the user’s weight goals to a smaller window of time, for example, the timeframe allowed for

this version was 41 weeks to 367 weeks, I would change that to 0  to 52 weeks, this will give

users a more accurate suggestion for calorie intake for a reasonable length of time. This raised a

question to me as to why this feature is less adjustable than others, for example inputting your

weight, the longer users are committed to utilizing this app generates profit for the company

made and maintains the application . “The framing of the continued use of an mHealth app as a

matter of health and well-being could distract people from the fact that they are in fact also

entering into an economic relationship—which stimulates particular economic behavior—when

they continue to use the app.” (Sax, Helberger, & Bol, 2018) Overall, tracking my meals with the
mHealth Assessment Page 4

Lifesum app did not take up too much time out of my day, this application was easily

comprehensible for users of all levels of technology and it kept track of my progress very well.

Therefore, I would recommend this application to other users who are looking for an application

to track their caloric intake to lose weight or maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Data

         Undoubtedly, Lifesum being as it is a mobile application collects and processes user data

and shares this data with third parties. The personal data that Lifesum collects comprise are the

user’s name, email address, height, weight, date of birth, and gender. What ends up happening

with this data is that third parties will build a profile on a user from the comprised data so that

they can market products and services geared towards that particular user. When a user agrees to

the terms and conditions for the Lifesum application they are agreeing to the processing of their

data by Lifesum and their affiliates. If a user would prefer to have rectification or erasure of their

personal data processed by Lifesum they have the right to do so and can accomplish this by

contacting Lifesum’s customer service or by deleting their account. (Lifesum) While the

application Lifesum follows industry standards and protects user’s data with the use of firewalls

and security software there is still a risk of unauthorized access to one’s private information that

some users would not be willing to take.

Health changes

To answer the question if using the Lifesum application improved my health, I first need

to take a critical look at the starting point of my caloric intake and exercise activity. Before using

the application, I was really unsure about the number of calories I was consuming in a day. I was

able to gauge a general idea and wasn’t consuming an excess number of calories, however, even

though my total number of calories was not excessive, I wasn’t always making the best choices
mHealth Assessment Page 5

on the most nutritional food to eat. I would say typically I maintain a lightly active lifestyle,

going on walks thought out the week and keeping up with the energy of a 5-year-old, although at

this time I was being a bit more sedentary than usual. Fast-forwarding to the time period when I

was tracking my food intake by using the application Lifesum, I was more conscious of the food

I was consuming. Since I had to input the meals I ate, I was much more aware of the ingredients

that were in my meals and the nutritional value of the food. In addition, the Lifesum application

helped motivate and remind me to do some light movement/ exercise by sending notifications to

my mobile devices. All in all, I would say that the app Lifesum did have a positive impact on my

health, improved my food and beverage choices, and gave me new recipes for healthier options

to prepare. I would definitely consider using Lifesum for a longer time period, such as 6 months

or more, in fact, I have continued to use this app in my daily life, although, I am not as rigorous

with inputting everything I consume every-day I still make a conscious effort to attempt to keep

track of what I am eating throughout the week.

Conclusion

         To summarize my assessment over the mobile health application Lifesum, I found this

app to be simple to navigate, promoted healthy habits and offered many customizable features.

The features I enjoyed from the Lifesum application are the water tracking system,

synchronization to smart devices, and scanning ability through phone cameras for pre-packaged

foods. I thought that there was room for improvement in certain areas including the time frame

for weight goals, I felt as they were too long of time periods and should be made shorter.

Lifesum can improve by offering grocery shopping lists, this would appeal to individuals who

might not be health-conscious but need guidance on nutrition. Lifesum follows industry

standards for protecting its users from data breach by the use of software protection and
mHealth Assessment Page 6

firewalls, though they disclose they can’t 100% guarantee that there isn’t a risk. I felt that the

Lifesum app improved my health by encouraging more consciousness of the nutrients that I was

consuming and motivated me to stay hydrated more often. In conclusion, my assessment of the

mobile health application Lifesum is that it is effective, user-friendly, interoperable with smart

devices and watches, has great personalization features for a free application, has a positive

impact on user’s health and I would recommend this app to users looking to improve their health

and eating habits .

mHealth Assessment Page 7

References

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://lifesum.com/policy/

Sax, M., Helberger, N., & Bol, N. (2018). Health as a Means Towards Profitable Ends: mHealth

Apps, User Autonomy, and Unfair Commercial Practices. Journal of Consumer

Policy, 41(2), 103–134. doi: 10.1007/s10603-018-9374-3