How to make an app-based program work and show how it works.

ABSTRACT: For digital health interventions, the "gold standard" of evaluating effectiveness is the randomized control trial (RCT). Yet, RCT methodology presents issues such as precluding changes to the technology during the study period as well as the use of study settings that do not reflect "real world" contexts. In this paper, we draw on empirical material from our ethnographic research on an app-based program called HIVSmart!, which is a digital strategy designed to support people in the process of HIV self-testing. We explore how this digital health approach was made to work in different contexts, and what this means for monitoring and evaluation of digital health interventions. Our analysis reveals that making technology which is "ease to use" depends on various user practices developed over t

SUBMITTER: Janssen R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12422419 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature