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Digital health experiences reported in chronic disease management: An umbrella review of qualitative studies

SDGs Impacted

The increasing prevalence and multimorbidity associated with chronic diseases are a major challenge for healthcare systems – impacting the health of people globally, but also posing challenges from a workforce perspective due to the enormous financial burden and staffing challenges it poses. Many individuals could effectively self-manage their condition in the community with the right support. Understanding user perspectives on digital health is critical to appropriate intervention design and implementation. Knowledge of these factors is a useful resource for implementers, researchers and healthcare providers to match interventions as solutions to specific problems. Recent systematic reviews of patient satisfaction have shown that digital health is an acceptable modality for care delivery; however, a variety of factors exist that affect patient satisfaction, such as ease of use or cost of the intervention. This umbrella review aimed to draw out universal themes to understand how people with chronic conditions experience digital health services, programmes, and interventions, and consequently better inform future digital delivery.

Impact / Outcome
People with chronic conditions perceive digital health provides feelings of reassurance and the ability to self-manage their condition. While there is ambivalence across the participant experiences reported within the major themes, this umbrella review has outlined a need for future interventions that are user-friendly, flexible, and tailored to individual users. This will be best achieved through a co-design model, with the consumer actively involved in the planning and design of digital health products and services.
Funding sources
Private
Key Metrics
Improve perception that digital health provides to people with chronic conditions
Sector
Health
Intervention lever
Policy
Operating model
Fully private
Target population
Disabled
Year published
01 January 2022

The EDISON Alliance

A World Economic Forum Initiative