Spanish-language HIV mHealth app ConexionesPositivas scored 75 on the System Usability Scale (good usability)

Description #

In a post-implementation usability study of ConexionesPositivas (CP), a Spanish-language HIV mHealth app, the 20-participant cohort's composite System Usability Scale (SUS) score was 75, which falls within the range of good usability. The authors note this exceeds the mean SUS score of 68 reported for Spanish digital health applications, indicating above-average usability relative to other mHealth apps, and is comparable to SUS scores from other HIV-related mHealth evaluations. Item-level SUS responses are reported in supplementary Table S1.

"The SUS composite score for this cohort was 75, which is within the range of good usability." (Kristen, 2023)

"In a study for Spanish digital health applications, the mean SUS score was 68, which indicates that CP has above average usability compared to other mHealth applications." (Kristen, 2023)

Methods Context #

What? #ⓘ

The observable: a composite usability score from the 10-item System Usability Scale (SUS), a validated instrument, administered in its Spanish version.

"Participants completed the 10-item System Usability Scale (SUS), a previously validated and reliable tool to assess usability of a variety of products, including mHealth apps. For this Spanish-speaking population, we used the Spanish version of SUS, which has high internal reliability." (Kristen, 2023)

How? #ⓘ

The Spanish-version SUS was administered by phone at the same time as semistructured interviews, by a bilingual investigator, for users of the A-0002ArtifactA-0002Initial AI draftConexionesPositivas (CP) Spanish-language mHealth platform for Latinx people with HIVTo improve access to, and engagement in, HIV care for Spanish-speaking Latinx people with HIV (PWH) in the United States — a population for whom most existing mHealth apps, built for English speakers, are less accessible….

"Semistructured interviews were carried out via phone and the SUS was administered by phone at the same time as the interviews. All interviews were conducted by a bilingual investigator with a graduate degree in Latin American studies." (Kristen, 2023)

Who? #ⓘ

20 Spanish-speaking Latinx CP users — diagnosed with HIV, over 18, native Spanish speakers, active CP users for at least 1 month — recruited through a Latinx-serving CBO in the Southern US; both monolingual Spanish and Spanish-English bilingual speakers.

"Participants included 20 Spanish-speaking Latinx CP users. … Participants were required to be active CP users for at least 1 month, diagnosed with HIV, over 18 years old and native Spanish speakers." (Kristen, 2023)

Other Notes #

Beyond the numeric score, most respondents reported on the SUS that they would like to use CP frequently, found it easy to use, with well-integrated and consistent features, and felt confident using it.

"According to the SUS, most respondents stated that they would like to use CP frequently, the application is easy to use, has well-integrated features, is consistent, and that they felt confident using it." (Kristen, 2023)

Caveats #

• Single-site sample without demographics and with self-selection and prompting bias limits the CP usability findings Participants were recruited from a single site in Virginia (via one Latinx-serving CBO), so transferability to Spanish-speaking PWH in other contexts may be limited. Individual-level demographics were deliberately not collected to protect privacy, leaving gaps in understanding which factors drive CP usage challenges. Selection bias may inflate the favorable usability and engagement picture: individuals motivated to join a research study may be more active or higher-technology-literacy CP users than non-participants. The sample was also small (n=20) and qualitative. Separately, the perceived-impact figures (e.g., positive impact on medication adherence, mood/stress) were elicited by direct prompting in the interview guide rather than measured, so they reflect self-reported perceptions, not adherence or clinical outcomes.