Table 3.

Illustrative participant quotations on barriers to using mobile health (mHealth) apps for skin cancer screening

Barrier	Participant quotation
Perceived lack of value of mHealth apps for skin cancer screening	‘I don’t have an app, because I don’t see the need for it anyway.’ Participant Focus Group 2
Perception of untrustworthiness	‘Yeah, sort of, I’d do a little research myself into how well that algorithm would work, but it sounds like an algorithm that says whether a picture is good or not. That sounds a bit like it’s doubtful whether it works at all.’ Participant Focus Group 4
Preference for a doctor instead of an app	‘It’s not a resistance to an app. It’s not. But it’s me as a person who’d rather have someone live in front of me. […] That just seems a lot more truthful and believable as you have someone to talk to.’ Participant Focus Group 2
Privacy concerns	‘It’s more about what you look for, because when you download an app like that, it’s really quite personal data that you send. Sometimes you take a photo and so on, you just don’t want it to be linked to you, in general. So, in that respect, I really wouldn’t want to create an account.’ Participant Focus Group 4
Complex and distracting user interface	‘I have no idea. I just couldn’t figure it out. So I thought it was very user‐unfriendly.’ Participant Focus Group 2
Perceived high costs associated with using mHealth	‘… [I]f you go to the doctor it’s free and if you have an app, so yes less reliable in your opinion and then you have to pay, and if you go to the doctor it is included in your health insurance. That’s weird, isn’t it?’ Participant Focus Group 2