Mapping Theories, Models, and Frameworks to Evaluate Digital Health Interventions: Scoping Review.

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Health Services Research
• Implementation Science

Background:

• Digital health interventions (DHIs) show promise but face challenges in real-world adoption and impact.
• Theories, models, and frameworks (TMFs) can explain complex interactions in DHI implementation.
• Understanding how TMFs guide DHI evaluation in practice is crucial but underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To map the landscape of TMFs utilized in DHI evaluation studies.
• To characterize the TMFs, their targeted constructs, and their prospective roles in DHI evaluation.
• To assess the relevance and utility of TMF application in DHI research for knowledge users.

Main Methods:

• A scoping review was conducted using an integrated knowledge translation approach.
• Included studies presented primary insights from TMF application in DHI evaluation.
• Searches were performed across multiple databases for papers published from 2000 onwards.

Main Results:

• 156 studies published between 2000-2022 were included, identifying 68 distinct TMFs.
• The most frequently reported TMFs included the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) and the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) Framework.
• TMFs were predominantly used to inform data collection (86 studies), data analysis (69 studies), and identify barriers/facilitators (52 studies).

Conclusions:

• TMFs are primarily applied to support data collection and analysis in DHI evaluations.
• Researchers should synthesize insights into practical use cases to improve the relevance and digestibility of findings.
• Guidelines for reporting DHIs and TMF use in evaluations need development to ensure evidence-informed technology transformation.