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Empowerment through health self-testing apps? Revisiting empowerment as a process
Alexandra Kapeller1, Iris Loosman2
1Department of Thematic Studies - Technology and Social Change, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. alexandra.kapeller@liu.se.
Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy
|January 2, 2023
Summary
Mobile health (mHealth) self-testing apps offer limited empowerment, failing to provide the knowledge and control defined by the WHO. They treat empowerment as a goal, not a process, neglecting crucial relational and contextual factors.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Digital Health
- Health Informatics
Background:
- Empowerment is a key public health concept, increasingly relevant with mobile health (mHealth) expansion.
- Direct-to-consumer self-testing apps utilize the term 'empowerment' in marketing.
- These apps allow users to test for conditions independently of healthcare professionals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze conceptualizations of empowerment in self-testing apps.
- To contrast app services with WHO definitions of empowerment as a process.
- To identify deficits in app-based empowerment and suggest improvements.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of empowerment concepts.
- Analysis of self-testing app functionalities.
- Comparison with World Health Organization (WHO) empowerment definitions.
Main Results:
- Self-testing apps lack comprehensive empowerment conceptualizations.
- Apps provide limited knowledge and control compared to WHO definitions.
- Empowerment is often framed as a goal, not a process, in mHealth and marketing.
Conclusions:
- Self-testing apps partially empower users, but not in the manner described by WHO.
- A shift towards viewing empowerment as a goal overlooks relational and contextual factors.
- Revisiting empowerment as a process can reveal app deficits and inform strategies for enhanced functionality.
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