Alyusheva
R.R., Voronkova O.A.
Saratov
State University, Russia
The prospect of the using mobile applications in
sociology and medicine
Modern
civilization is quickly moving towards to the information society, in which
people's lives are increasingly dependent on the information. As the
society changes, methods of gathering
information change too: from mail
surveys to personal interviews, from interviews to telephone surveys, from
telephone ones to Web surveys, through computers, and especially mobile
devices.
Nowadays
mobile technologies are recognized as the most rapidly growing: mobile phone is
the most popular personal device, the users’ number of which has exceeded the
figure of six billion all over the world. During the next few years, combined
with the incredibly rapid growth of smartphones with the Internet access, the
mobile phone will become the dominant platform for the Internet access. This
means the possibility of conducting research online through mobile devices for
scientists and sociologists.
Like other
traditional methods of collecting information from mobile Web polls have its
advantages and its limitations.
The main
advantage of Web surveys conducted on mobile phones is the ability to build a
random sample of mobile Internet users, using as a basis the sample of phone
numbers [2]. The main problem of compiling the frame on the Internet is the
lack of a unique, complete and unique user IDs [1]. In mobile Web surveys there
is an opportunity to use mobile phone numbers as a basis for the selection of
the sample of respondents randomly generates telephone numbers. In this case,
if the general population represents users of mobile phones, the method has a
bug. However, in the case of narrow audience to mobile Internet users is being
addressed as an issue of coverage and the selection problem.
Another
advantage of mobile Web surveys is the ability to reduce non-response errors.
Amid all this increased an interest in mobile Web polls, as an opportunity to
increase the percentage of participating in Web research due to the involvement
of certain socio-demographic groups that have the ability to fill in the form
on a mobile device (e.g., young respondents, more mobile units, etc.)
As the
third possibility may be noted the advantages of collecting diary data
information on daily purchases or obtain images or video of certain events of
the respondent by scientific institutions and companies and get them in real
time.
At the same
time the basic restrictions of mobile Web polls are coverage errors and
measurement. Despite the growth of the mobile Internet, it lags behind the
stationary Internet. Users prefer to work on the classic computer with a mouse,
keyboard, and faster connections than just typing short messages on the phone.
The mobile phone as a technical device has small screen with limited
functionality, which again is proving inconvenient for the respondent and may
negatively affect his answers.
It is also
worth noting that the establishment of a programme for questioning on a mobile
phone is more difficult compared to the development of the online application
form for the personal computer. The reason is not only in limited hardware
capabilities of mobile systems, but also in a larger diversity of operating
systems. If the computer industry can be divided into three major operating
systems and browsers, then five in mobile technology operational diversity
increases. As mobile operating systems include Android, etc.
However,
software development is under a specific operating system is quite time
consuming and in some cases completely unnecessary process. These, in our view,
are the main disadvantages of mobile devices when conducting sociological
researches.
If the same
type mobile Web polls, they can be divided into those that are filled through
the mobile app, and those that are filled in the mobile browser without using
the application.
It should
be noted that social studies is inextricably connected with the mobile
technologies in the medical field.
Occurred
the direction of mobile medicine-mHealth, today is one of the fastest growing
in the market. The mHealth are services, programs, activities and other actions
in the field of medicine and public health, which used mobile devices and
various wireless technologies [3]. In a broad sense, mHealth is the use of
mobile technologies for healthcare services and health information. According
to the research firm r2g, now in big stores there are approximately 9700
application software for mobile health, 42% of which hold a paid business
model.
Applications
are increasingly moving to the cloud-so you can successfully synchronize the
various downloads, combine them with medical diagnostic system. Collecting data
from different applications in one place (map application), you can conduct a
comprehensive study. Among the most famous decisions in this area is
GoogleHealth. It is the Internet service which conducts personal electronic
health records. Apple also unveiled an open platform to collect data in medical
research. The platform should simplify and increase the efficiency of
information gathering, as well as help to pick up patients to participate in
large-scale biomedical research. Research platform enables users to participate
in research iPhone regardless of place of residence. The bottom line is that
voluntary participants can, for example, perform various tasks and complete
questionnaires via the iPhone. Platform Research allows scientists to seek
consent from patients to participate in interactive mode. Users can choose
which studies they want to participate and what data they want to pass.
Some of the
most interesting and necessary directions of thematic developments technology
to Sociology are:
· Application
for self reflecting health status.
· Quantifield
(or application for personal analytics that allow you to collect and analyze
measurement and individual activity).
The first
group of diagnostic applications, such as Lark uHear, to monitor the condition
of the body and stay in the best working form. The most interesting application
of this group is the Moo-Q assesses the mood and the brain activity of the
person. With this application people can figure out what time of day it is
better to perform complex tasks, allows you to notify about changes in the
brain over time, memory and speed of information processing. In General,
according to the creators, you can talk about the direct relationship between
the mood of the man and his brain activity. New app allows you to answer the
question of whether the brain works better when a person is in a good mood or a
bad mood makes us think better. While Moo-Q is only available in the AppStore.
Also of interest such as a Misfit and Evo to help track parameters of sleep and
mental state of the person.
The most
interesting representative of the second category is the application-Reporter.
This application asks questions during the day from the given list. Each user
can be assigned a different type of response from Yes/No, depending on your
location. A few days later, the results are added to the report. In conjunction
with the questions, adds number of passed steps added photos, weather, route
and surrounding acoustic field. All information received is submitted in the
form of graphs, charts, lists.
Despite the
growing popularity of online surveys in General, applications, implementing a
quality collection of information on mobile devices, disastrously low. Therefore, in our view, this trend should be encouraged.
References:
1. Fricker
S., Galesic M., Tourangeau R., Yan T. An Experimental Comparison of Web and
Telephone Surveys//Public Opinion Quarterly. 2005. Vol. 69. ¹ 3 —
P. 370–392
2. Fuchs
M., Busse B. The coverage Bias of Mobile Web Surveys Across European
Countries//International Journal of Internet Science. 2009. Vol. 4. ¹
1 —
P. 21–33
3. Singatulin R., Ablyazov K. Personal Accompanying
Remote Noninvasite Medical System / International Journal of Advances in
Computer Science and Its Applications. Volume 5: Issue 1. 2015. P. 34-36.