Beyond Individual Responsibilisation: How Social Relations are Mobilised in Communication About a Dementia...

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Sociology of Health
• Health Communication

Background:

• Existing research on mobile health (mHealth) applications emphasizes user responsibilization within neoliberal frameworks.
• This scholarship often overlooks the influence of social relations on user responsibilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how social relations are constructed within the communication of a North American mHealth app for early cognitive change detection.
• To analyze the role of social relations in shaping user responsibilities within the context of self-testing applications.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative analysis of expert interviews.
• Examination of images and communication strategies on the app's web presence.

Main Results:

• Social relations are actively mobilized to encourage users to support others during testing, to undertake tests for others' benefit, and to prompt others to take tests.
• The app's communication constructs responsibilities that extend beyond the individual user, involving family and social networks.

Conclusions:

• The study argues for greater attention to social relations in the literature on responsibilization.
• Acknowledging relational responsibilities is crucial for understanding the full scope of duties, including potential gendered implications, imposed by mHealth technologies.