Background and Purpose: Smartphone related medical applications (apps) are increasingly gaining relevance in medical education worldwide owing to its many benefits such as access to information about clinical conditions and therapies, keeping of vital notes and carrying out simple calculations (Wallace et al, 2012). This has led to the provision of smartphones and relevant apps by various institutions in the developed world to enhance medical education. To harness the benefits resulting from the adoption of these apps by medical students for educational purposes in developing nations, including Nigeria, it is however important to highlight empirical perspectives on their usage. This study assessed knowledge, perception, and use of medical apps among students in the College of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

Relevance: The findings of this study may help stakeholders in medical education in Nigeria to pay necessary attention to the use of medical apps and mobile technology thereby improving students’ learning outcomes.

Methods: Data were collected among 320 (60% male) consenting students in the study using a well-structured questionnaire developed from tools used in related studies (Koh et al., 2014). The questionnaire was pilot tested for its face and content validity and its reliability. Information elicited comprised socio-demographic characteristics (age, sex, academic level, and marital status), knowledge, perception, and use of medical apps.

Analysis: Data was analysed using descriptive statistics of means and frequencies. Chi-Square was used to explore the association between the use of medical apps and socio-demographic characteristics of respondents.

Results: Eighty-nine percent of the participants owned a smartphone; the lifetime and point prevalence of the use of medical apps by respondents was 66% and 51%, respectively. In addition, a high (81.9%) level of knowledge and positive perception (80%) of the use of medical apps were obtained from the study. Knowledge of students about medical apps was found to be associated with age and academic level (p < 0.05). There was a significant association between the use of medical apps, age and academic level (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Smartphones were very popular among undergraduates. A substantial percentage of the students used medical apps on their smartphones and most positively perceived use of smartphone medical-related apps.

Implication: Medical apps, if utilized for medical learning and also given the enabling environment, have the potential to reinforce students’ learning experience and enhance learning outcomes

Funding Source: No funding was received for this study.

Ethics approval: The Health Research and Ethics Committee of the Institute of Public Health, College of Health Sciences Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife gave approval for this study.

Keywords: Knowledge, Perception, Use, Medical Applications, Students, Health sciences, Nigeria

References

Koh K.C, Wan J.K, Selvanathan S, Vivekananda C, Lee G.Y, Ng C.T. 2014. Medical students’ perceptions regarding the Impact of mobile medical applications on their clinical practice.  J Mobile Technol Med 3:1:4653.  doi:10.7309/jmtm.3.1.7

Wallace S, Clark M, White J. 2012. ‘It’s on my iPhone’: attitudes to the use of mobile computing devices in medical education, a mixed methods study. BMJ Open; 2; e001099.