Behavioral Interventions Using Consumer Information Technology as Tools to Advance Health Equity

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Health Disparities
• Behavioral Interventions

Background:

• The digital divide is decreasing, enabling consumer information technologies (CITs) for health interventions.
• CITs offer potential to overcome access barriers and deliver interventions in daily life contexts.
• Evidence for CIT-enabled interventions in health disparity populations lags behind the general population.

Purpose of the Study:

• To summarize the use of mHealth, telehealth, and social media for behavioral interventions in health disparity populations.
• To identify challenges and strategies for using CITs in these populations.
• To recommend future research directions.

Main Methods:

• Literature review and case example summarization.
• Analysis of mHealth, telehealth, and social media as intervention platforms.
• Identification of challenges and successful strategies.

Main Results:

• The evidence base for CIT-enabled health interventions in disparity populations is emerging.
• Key challenges exist in design, implementation, and evaluation.
• Strategies for overcoming challenges and successful examples are presented.

Conclusions:

• Fulfilling the potential of CITs requires addressing design, implementation, and evaluation challenges.
• Future directions include improved design methods, reporting, multilevel interventions, rigorous evaluation, privacy considerations, and inclusive practices.