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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth

Date Submitted: Jun 20, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 24, 2018 - Aug 19, 2018
Date Accepted: Oct 3, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Barriers to and Facilitators of Engagement With mHealth Technology for Remote Measurement and Management of Depression: Qualitative Analysis

Simblett S, Matcham F, Siddi S, Bulgari V, Barattieri di San Pietro C, Hortas López J, Ferrão J, Polhemus A, Haro JM, de Girolamo G, Gamble P, Eriksson H, Hotopf M, Wykes T, Consortium RC

Barriers to and Facilitators of Engagement With mHealth Technology for Remote Measurement and Management of Depression: Qualitative Analysis

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2019;7(1):e11325

DOI: 10.2196/11325

PMID: 30698535

PMCID: 6372936

Barriers to and Facilitators of Engagement With mHealth Technology for Remote Measurement and Management of Depression: Qualitative Analysis

  • Sara Simblett; 
  • Faith Matcham; 
  • Sara Siddi; 
  • Viola Bulgari; 
  • Chiara Barattieri di San Pietro; 
  • Jorge Hortas López; 
  • José Ferrão; 
  • Ashley Polhemus; 
  • Josep Maria Haro; 
  • Giovanni de Girolamo; 
  • Peter Gamble; 
  • Hans Eriksson; 
  • Matthew Hotopf; 
  • Til Wykes; 
  • RADAR-CNS Consortium

ABSTRACT

Background:

Mobile technology has the potential to provide accurate, impactful data on the symptoms of depression, which could improve health management or assist in early detection of relapse. However, for this potential to be achieved, it is essential that patients engage with the technology. Although many barriers to and facilitators of the use of this technology are common across therapeutic areas and technology types, many may be specific to cultural and health contexts.

Objective:

This study aimed to determine the potential barriers to and facilitators of engagement with mobile health (mHealth) technology for remote measurement and management of depression across three Western European countries.

Methods:

Participants (N=25; 4:1 ratio of women to men; age range, 25-73 years) who experienced depression participated in five focus groups held in three countries (two in the United Kingdom, two in Spain, and one in Italy). The focus groups investigated the potential barriers to and facilitators of the use of mHealth technology. A systematic thematic analysis was used to extract themes and subthemes.

Results:

Facilitators and barriers were categorized as health-related factors, user-related factors, and technology-related factors. A total of 58 subthemes of specific barriers and facilitators or moderators emerged. A core group of themes including motivation, potential impact on mood and anxiety, aspects of inconvenience, and ease of use was noted across all countries.

Conclusions:

Similarities in the barriers to and facilitators of the use of mHealth technology have been observed across Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom. These themes provide guidance on ways to promote the design of feasible and acceptable cross-cultural mHealth tools.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Simblett S, Matcham F, Siddi S, Bulgari V, Barattieri di San Pietro C, Hortas López J, Ferrão J, Polhemus A, Haro JM, de Girolamo G, Gamble P, Eriksson H, Hotopf M, Wykes T, Consortium RC

Barriers to and Facilitators of Engagement With mHealth Technology for Remote Measurement and Management of Depression: Qualitative Analysis

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2019;7(1):e11325

DOI: 10.2196/11325

PMID: 30698535

PMCID: 6372936

Per the author's request the PDF is not available.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.