What are Chinese citizens most concerned about?
Medical issues generally fall under the number one category of concern among Chinese citizens according to government surveys - trailing much higher than concerns over social morals, security, education and unemployment. Much of this anxiety comes from the fact that routine healthcare is still extremely expensive even for the average Chinese middle class - not to mention that hospitals revenues and pharmaceutical sales are in a market oriented system which further increases medical expenses.
[See my previous post on drug pricing http://chinainhousemonster.blogspot.com/search/label/drug%20pricing]
How have eating habits changed in China?
Historically, Chinese diets have had a symbolic relationship between the food eaten and aspects of health. "He that takes medicine and neglects diet, wastes the skills of the physician."(Chinese proverb)" It is important to point out cultural values here. One one side Chinese people are very concerned about balance and harmony, the "yin and the yang", or the "five elements theory" that was traditionally applied to almost every aspect of day to day life, including food. However, today with rising disposable incomes and most of the nuclear family in the workforce, regular eating out has become mainstream culture in China. This is why fast food chains such as McDonald's and KFC have been some of the fastest growing franchieses in this region.
Beacause of this change in eating habits and lessened physical activity, Chinese people are increasingly starting to witness diet and obesity related health disorders. According to a Chinese health ministry statement in China there are more than 60 million obese people and another 200 million who are overweight. The New England Journal of Medicine calls diabetes and pre-diabetes a silent epedemic in China - with 1 in 10 people already suffering from the disease and millions who are undiagnosed.
How smartphone apps work toward promotion of health in other countries?
There currently exist about 700 healthcare and fitness smartphone apps ranging from the useful to the gimmicky. These include custom diaries, calorie counters (tracking what you eat, including those from popular foods or restaurants), pedometers (tracking your every footstep) etc. Users pay about 99 cents for these applications or sometimes even get them for free. Although you can't click yourself to a healthier body, many users have claimed that by using things such as a calory counter, they think twice before consuming certain foods. Also since the price of these apps are so low, there is more of a "why not try" attitude and very little required commitment of the consumer with respect to expense and time.
Smartphone applications for food in China
China with 800+ million cellphone subscribers is easily the worlds largest growing market for smartphones and smartphone apps. The major service providers such as China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom have already outfitted third generation devices. Given the discussion above, there are really endless ways smartphone apps in Chinese can be used for improving/maintaining the health of Chinese citizens, by educating the consumers and providing instant information on food choices. There are hundreds if not thousands of franchisee food stores in China - wouldn't it be great if when you walked in you could see the calorie and nutrition count of everything on the menu. What about all the snack foods and drinks in the convenient stores which are on every corner and every block... With the relatively low cost of the application, consumers can benefit with little expenditure by taking proactive rather than reactive measures on health. Because medical issues are most important to Chinese people, apps tailored to these concerns will surely fare well.
Interesting Reading
Food and Eating Anthropology: http://www.sirc.org/publik/food_and_eating_9.html
New England Journal of Medicine: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/362/12/1090
Five Elements Theory of Chinese Cooking: http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa041900a.htm
China Suffering Diabetes Epedemic: http://health.yahoo.com/news/afp/chinahealthdiabetes_20100325104234.html
Smart Solution: Researchers Use Smartphones to Improve Health of Elderly Diabetics in China:
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