Macro-engagement in mHealth: Exploring user engagement beyond the screen

While digital technology holds great promise for health and well-being, some users feel sceptical about the time they spend online and how they use their mobile devices. This attitude could hamper uptake of digital health technologies and engagement with them. This study uses the concept of macro-en...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Camila Villegas Mejía, Danielle Remmerswaal, Rutger C.M.E. Engels, Geke D.S. Ludden, Marilisa Boffo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2024-01-01
Series:Digital Health
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231225591
Description
Summary:While digital technology holds great promise for health and well-being, some users feel sceptical about the time they spend online and how they use their mobile devices. This attitude could hamper uptake of digital health technologies and engagement with them. This study uses the concept of macro-engagement as a starting point to investigate how users of digital behaviour change interventions (DBCIs) engage with their behaviour change goals beyond the screens of their tools. Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals who take part in behaviour change processes in different ways (i.e. mental health professionals, digital health experts and users of DBCIs). A qualitative analysis of their data through a grounded theory approach highlighted a wide array of offscreen behaviors and strategies that complement a behavior change process offscreen. Furthermore, implications for designing technology that encourages progressive non-reliance on DBCI usage are drawn out.
ISSN:2055-2076