An Evaluation Tool for Agricultural Health and Safety Mobile Applications

ABSTRACT

As the use of mobile devices and their software applications, or apps, becomes ubiquitous, use amongst agricultural working populations is expanding as well. The smart device paired with a well-designed app has potential for improving workplace health and safety in the hands of those who can act upon the information provided. Many apps designed to assess workplace hazards and implementation of worker protections already exist. However, the abundance and diversity of such applications also presents challenges regarding evaluation practices and assignation of value. This is particularly true in the agricultural workspace, as there is currently little information on the value of these apps for agricultural safety and health. This project proposes a framework for developing and evaluating apps that have potential usefulness in agricultural health and safety. The evaluation framework is easily transferable, with little modification for evaluation of apps in several agriculture-specific areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Health communication/methods
• program evaluation
• technology/trends
• mobile apps
• software
• usability

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Kris Johnson for his valuable contributions to this project. The authors also thank Marie Fleisner and Rachel Stankowski for their valuable comments and suggestions for this article.

Funding

This work was funded by US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, grants U54 OH009568 and U54 OH010162.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, grants U54 OH009568 and U54 OH010162.