Increasing Truck Drivers' Compliance, Retention, and Long-Term Engagement with e-Health & Mobile Applications: A...

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Digital Health Interventions
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Truck drivers are a high-risk group facing health issues from irregular schedules, sedentary work, and fatigue.
• Mobile health (mHealth) tools show promise but struggle with sustained truck driver engagement.
• Limited healthcare access exacerbates health challenges for this demographic.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify determinants of truck driver compliance, retention, and long-term engagement with digital health interventions.
• To explore behavioral, technological, and contextual factors influencing mHealth adoption in the trucking industry.
• To synthesize evidence on factors affecting sustained use of digital health tools by truck drivers.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review following PRISMA 2020 guidelines.
• Thematic synthesis of six eligible studies.
• Analysis from perspectives of technology acceptance, behavior change, and persuasive system design.

Main Results:

• Sustained engagement factors: self-monitoring, real-time feedback, goal-setting, coaching, simple/flexible design.
• Engagement barriers: technological complexity, high interaction demands, low digital literacy, privacy concerns, schedule misalignment, fatigue.
• Key determinants: autonomy, trust, and voluntary participation are crucial for continued use.

Conclusions:

• Context-sensitive, user-centered design is essential for effective digital health interventions in the trucking sector.
• Addressing technological and contextual barriers is vital for improving truck driver engagement with mHealth.
• Future research should focus on long-term evaluations and diverse study designs.