Follow-Up Evaluation to Explore Disparities Between Android and iOS Users Utilizing the TrackYourTinnitus Mobile Health Platform

The collection of data via smartphones for medical purposes has reached an established place. Concepts such as Patient-reported Outcomes (PROs) or Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMAs) have shown that when operationalized with smartphones, medically relevant outcomes can be achieved. For example, there are studies showing that PROs can be used to increase cancer survival rates. Interestingly, the use of smart-phones also opens up entirely new possibilities. For example, if a study offers a smartphone app on Android and iOS, the operating system can be used as a variable to identify medically relevant differences. We have already done this in a 2018 study for our longstanding platform TrackYourTinnitus (TYT). TYT collects daily data from tinnitus patients using EMA and PROs to learn more about their variations. Since tinnitus is still unclear in its origin, but there is a large heterogeneity between patients, long-lasting and daily measurements can provide interesting insights, which will be done again in the present study using the differences between Android and iOS users. Because more than 5 years have now passed since the last study, a follow-up analysis is presented. A large part of the results continue to be confirmed and individual aspects have also emerged due to the larger data base, which we report on in this article.