Interactivity and Presence of Three eHealth Interventions

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Digital Health

Background:

• Interactivity and presence are crucial for e-Health applications, influencing user commitment and learning.
• Previous research suggests these attributes are vital for effective digital health interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate brief scales for measuring interactivity and presence in e-Health.
• To assess user perceptions of interactivity and presence across different e-Health intervention conditions.

Main Methods:

• Development of brief measurement scales for interactivity and presence.
• Utilized scales in a large-scale trial involving breast cancer patients across six intervention conditions.
• Compared user perceptions of standard internet use, the CHESS system, and Cancer Information Mentors.

Main Results:

• The general Internet scored lowest on both interactivity and presence.
• The integrated system of services (CHESS) demonstrated higher scores, increasing with added features.
• Interventions with a human Cancer Information Mentor achieved the highest scores, enhanced further when combined with the eHealth system.

Conclusions:

• Human-guided eHealth interventions, particularly those integrating technology, offer superior interactivity and presence.
• The developed scales provide a reliable method for assessing key user experience attributes in eHealth.
• Optimizing interactivity and presence in eHealth systems can enhance user engagement and intervention effectiveness for patients.