Chapter 12 - The impact of mHealth interventions: Improving health outcomes through narratives, mixed methods, and data mining strategies

Abstract

Mobile health (mHealth) interventions provide opportunities and challenges for self-management of healthcare. As scholars explore the future of mHealth interventions, it is important to consider the end user to focus on the increasingly important nature of the personalized healthcare experience. To do this, mixed-method approaches are offered to effectively personalize these experiences. Narrative approaches in mHealth interventions can provide improved behavioral outcomes, patient compliance, and improved self-efficacy. To better gather and evaluate mHealth interventions, data science approaches through mining can benefit mHealth interventions in their design, user experience, and evaluation. These approaches are outlined in tandem with examples and suggestions for their use in practice. This chapter is concluded with suggestions for future directions that make use of these strategies to build optimal mHealth interventions that serve the broader public.