Research of the usage of health-behavior improving mobile applications

The spread of smartphones provides a variety of opportunities for educating users on a healthy lifestyle. Healthcare applications can also be an important aid in shaping young people's health behavior. The aim of the study is to examine whether health behavior and the variables determining the general health status of students can be related to the frequency of using mobile health-care applications. Hungarian and Serbian students from four higher education institutions participated in the survey, 329 students in total. The research examines students' perceptions of their own health and assesses participants' BMI index, physical fitness characteristics, harmful addictions (smoking), sports and eating habits. The examination of the students in the sample revealed that the health behavior of students was satisfactory. There was a significant difference in the BMI index between students in different countries. The results show that students use smart applications confirming the authors' assumptions, most of them use at least 6-10 applications. With most of the students, some of the applications used are some kind of health-care applications. Research results have demonstrated that there is a correlation between health behavior and the use of health-promoting applications.