Read and accepted? Scoping the cognitive accessibility of privacy policies of health apps and websites in three European countries
Objective Trust and accessibility are vital to adoption of health and wellness apps. This research scoped three elements of cognitive accessibility of health app privacy policies: availability, ease of navigation, and readability. Methods For this cross-sectional study, quantitative data collected i...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Digital Health |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231152162 |
| _version_ | 1797947505451728896 |
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| author | David Neal Sophie Gaber Phil Joddrell Anna Brorsson Karin Dijkstra Rose-Marie Dröes |
| author_facet | David Neal Sophie Gaber Phil Joddrell Anna Brorsson Karin Dijkstra Rose-Marie Dröes |
| author_sort | David Neal |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective Trust and accessibility are vital to adoption of health and wellness apps. This research scoped three elements of cognitive accessibility of health app privacy policies: availability, ease of navigation, and readability. Methods For this cross-sectional study, quantitative data collected in the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom included: whether privacy information was in a country's official language (availability); number of distracting visual elements (ease of navigation); word count and Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) reading level (readability). Health app privacy policies were compared to policies from a purposively selected sample of websites, and to benchmarks, including CEFR reading level B1. Results Health app privacy policies were less often available in countries’ official languages compared to sampled websites (Chi-Square [1, 180] = 57.470, p < 0.001) but contained fewer distracting visual elements. More UK privacy policies were in the country's official language, whereas Swedish privacy policies contained fewest words and fewest potentially distracting design elements. Only one privacy policy met the CEFR reading level benchmark. Conclusions Lack of privacy information in non-Anglophone app-users’ native languages and high reading levels may be major barriers to cognitive accessibility. Web and app developers should consider recommendations arising from this study, to stimulate trust in and adoption of health and wellness apps. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T21:29:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-096bfc96aaa447dbb47dd3bff1dd102b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2055-2076 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T21:29:05Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Digital Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-096bfc96aaa447dbb47dd3bff1dd102b2023-01-19T14:04:03ZengSAGE PublishingDigital Health2055-20762023-01-01910.1177/20552076231152162Read and accepted? Scoping the cognitive accessibility of privacy policies of health apps and websites in three European countriesDavid Neal0Sophie Gaber1Phil Joddrell2Anna Brorsson3Karin Dijkstra4Rose-Marie Dröes5 Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Location VUmc/Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Division of Occupational Therapy, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS), , Stockholm, Sweden Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare, School of Health and Related Research, , Sheffield, UK Division of Occupational Therapy, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS), , Stockholm, Sweden Research Group Smart Health, School of Health, , Enschede, The Netherlands Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Location VUmc/Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsObjective Trust and accessibility are vital to adoption of health and wellness apps. This research scoped three elements of cognitive accessibility of health app privacy policies: availability, ease of navigation, and readability. Methods For this cross-sectional study, quantitative data collected in the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom included: whether privacy information was in a country's official language (availability); number of distracting visual elements (ease of navigation); word count and Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) reading level (readability). Health app privacy policies were compared to policies from a purposively selected sample of websites, and to benchmarks, including CEFR reading level B1. Results Health app privacy policies were less often available in countries’ official languages compared to sampled websites (Chi-Square [1, 180] = 57.470, p < 0.001) but contained fewer distracting visual elements. More UK privacy policies were in the country's official language, whereas Swedish privacy policies contained fewest words and fewest potentially distracting design elements. Only one privacy policy met the CEFR reading level benchmark. Conclusions Lack of privacy information in non-Anglophone app-users’ native languages and high reading levels may be major barriers to cognitive accessibility. Web and app developers should consider recommendations arising from this study, to stimulate trust in and adoption of health and wellness apps.https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231152162 |
| spellingShingle | David Neal Sophie Gaber Phil Joddrell Anna Brorsson Karin Dijkstra Rose-Marie Dröes Read and accepted? Scoping the cognitive accessibility of privacy policies of health apps and websites in three European countries Digital Health |
| title | Read and accepted? Scoping the cognitive accessibility of privacy policies of health apps and websites in three European countries |
| title_full | Read and accepted? Scoping the cognitive accessibility of privacy policies of health apps and websites in three European countries |
| title_fullStr | Read and accepted? Scoping the cognitive accessibility of privacy policies of health apps and websites in three European countries |
| title_full_unstemmed | Read and accepted? Scoping the cognitive accessibility of privacy policies of health apps and websites in three European countries |
| title_short | Read and accepted? Scoping the cognitive accessibility of privacy policies of health apps and websites in three European countries |
| title_sort | read and accepted scoping the cognitive accessibility of privacy policies of health apps and websites in three european countries |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231152162 |
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