Unfavorable conditions in the workplaces affect the health and well-being of Brazilian workers, whose self-management can be achieved by mobile health (mHealth) technologies. The widespread availability of mHealth makes relevant its quality evaluation.

To evaluate the quality of mHealth applications aimed to promote workers’ health and well-being available in Brazilian online stores by potential end users.

Three apps were evaluated in this study, which obtained the highest scores in a previous systematic search recently published. The Laboral Life (LL) by Life PQV - version 1.0 obtained the best score (4.03 ± 1.0). Pausas Ativas (PA) 3.1.0 by Eighteen Code and Exercícios de exercício de escritório – perder peso (EE) 1.0.04 by Home Fit had the same score (3.5 ± 0.9) by trained researchers according to the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS). The opinion of potential end users was obtained through the Portuguese-Brazil version of the User Mobile App Rating Scale (uMARS). An electronic form with 36 questions, containing a sociodemographic questionnaire and the uMARS that assesses engagement, functionality, aesthetics, information and subjective quality on 5-point scales were used. The sample was composed by Brazilian professors with a workload of more than 20 hours per week and access to a smartphone with Android or iOS operating system. Exclusion criteria were being retired, away from work or on vacation. The app was randomly selected for each participant and tested for at least 10 minutes. Data collection occurred in August-October 2023. Descriptive analysis was performed.

The sample consisted of 30 professors, 50% men, with 51.5 ± 10.4 years, 83% white, 60% married and 87% had PhD. On a scale of 1 to 5, the mean and standard deviation of the quality of the three applications according to the uMARS scale was 3.4 ± 0.6, with an overall quality score of 3.51 ± 0.78 for PA; 3.43 ± 0.70 for EE; 3.31 ± 0.23 for LL. The overall score of the engagement subscale was 2.7 ± 1.4; with a mean of 2.8 for PA; 2.9 for EE and 2.3 for LL. The overall score of the functionality subscale was 4.1 ± 0.6, with a mean of 4.3 for PA, 4.3 for EE and 3.8 for LL; the overall score of the aesthetics subscale was 3.8 ± 0.5, with a mean of 3.9 for PA, 3.7 for EE, and 3.8 for LL; and the overall score of the information subscale was 3.0 ± 0.8, with a mean of 3.0 for PA, 2.8 for EE, and 3.4 for LL.

For users, the apps were of moderate quality. PA was the highest rated app in user reviews but is currently not available in the online store. We recommend the EE app, now renamed to Exercícios Treino Escritório, which is available on the Google Play Store.

In addition to monitoring by a health professional, mHealth applications can be used as a strategy by workers to promote their health and well-being. Developers need to improve information and incentives for user engagement.