The psychometric assessment of the provider version of mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ) in persian language

Introduction: mHealth apps are widely utilized in healthcare. To guarantee their usefulness and usability, it is crucial to assess them using a reliable scale tailored specifically for mHealth apps and their users.

Objective: The aim of this study is the psychometric assessment of the provider version of mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ) in Persian language.

Method: The Persian translations of standalone and interactive versions of the MAUQ for healthcare providers underwent validation. Face validity, content validity, and factor analysis were conducted to validate these two versions. Ten nurses evaluated face validity, while ten nursing and psychometric analysis experts assessed content validity. Factor analysis involved 98 nurses. The reliability of the questionnaires was measured using Cronbach's alpha.

Results: The translated questionnaires were validated, confirming both face validity (impact score ≥ 2.40) and content validity (k*≥0.66). The Persian version of the MAUQ for standalone applications had 18 items across two dimensions: easy to use and usefulness (11 items) and user interface and satisfaction (7 items). The Persian version of the MAUQ for interactive applications had 21 items across three dimensions: easy to use (4 items), usefulness (5 items), and user interface and satisfaction (12 items). Both standalone and interactive versions demonstrated high internal consistency with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.96.

Conclusions: The psychometric assessment of the provider version of MAUQ in Persian language has the reliability and validity required to assess mHealth applications usability.