The conceptualisation and measurement of engagement in digital health
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Published version
Author(s)
Meinert, E
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Digital tools are an increasingly important component of healthcare, but their potential impact is commonly limited by a lack of user engagement. Digital health evaluations of engagement are often restricted to system usage metrics, which cannot capture a full understanding of how and why users engage with an intervention. This study aimed to examine how theory-based, multifaceted measures of engagement with digital health interventions capture different components of engagement (affective, cognitive, behavioural, micro, and macro) and to consider areas that are unclear or missing in their measurement. We identified and compared two recently developed measures that met these criteria (the Digital Behaviour Change Intervention Engagement Scale and the TWente Engagement with Ehealth Technologies Scale). Despite having similar theoretical bases and being relatively strongly correlated, there are key differences in how these scales aim to capture engagement. We discuss the implications of our analysis for how affective, cognitive, and behavioural components of engagement can be conceptualised and whether there is value in distinguishing between them. We conclude with recommendations for the circumstances in which each scale may be most useful and for how future measure development could supplement existing scales.
Date Issued
2024-06
Online Publication Date
2024-04-10T15:14:20Z
Date Acceptance
2024-03-08
ISSN
2214-7829
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Internet Interventions
Volume
36
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URI
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214782924000289
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
100735
Date Publish Online
2024-03-11