JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

eHealth has enormous potential to facilitate access to and uptake of resources for self-management of depressive symptoms in people living with HIV. However, a lack of personalization is an important barrier to user engagement with eHealth. According to goal-directed design, personalized eHealth requires identifying user personas before concrete design to capture and understand different users’ goals & needs.

Objective:

This study aimed to identify user personas for eHealth on self-management of depressive symptoms in people living with HIV and explore the goals & needs of different user personas for future eHealth.

Methods:

We used an explanatory sequential mixed methods design at the First Hospital of Changsha City, Hunan Province, China, from April to October 2022. In the quantitative phase, 572 people living with HIV completed validated questionnaires, including their demographics, self-efficacy, self-management of depressive symptoms, and eHealth literacy. Latent profile analysis was performed to identify distinct user personas. The findings from these quantitative data informed the sampling patterns and interview guide of the following qualitative phase. In the qualitative phase, 43 one-to-one, semi-structured interviews across different user personas were conducted, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using conventional content analysis. The findings from both phases were integrated during the interpretation phase.

Results:

Three types of user personas could be identified, including “high-level self-manager” (254/572, 44.41%), “medium-level self-manager” (283/572, 49.48%), and “low-level self-manager” (35/572, 6.12%). High-level self-managers had relatively high levels of self-efficacy, self-management abilities of depressive symptoms, and eHealth literacy, with a positive attitude toward using eHealth for self-management of depressive symptoms; they desired access to self-management support for depressive symptoms from eHealth with high usability. Medium-level self-managers had relatively medium levels of self-efficacy, self-management abilities of depressive symptoms, and eHealth literacy; they feel burdened by using eHealth for self-management of depressive symptoms and therefore desired access to self-management support for HIV from eHealth with privacy. Low-level self-managers had relatively low levels of self-efficacy and self-management abilities of depressive symptoms and a relatively medium level of eHealth literacy, with an acceptable attitude toward using eHealth for self-management of depressive symptoms; they desired access to professionals’ guidance from eHealth with privacy and free of charge.

Conclusions:

The three user personas shed light on the possibility of personalized eHealth to support the self-management of depressive symptoms in different people living with HIV. Further endeavor is needed to examine the generalizability of the user personas across study sites. Clinical Trial: Not Applicable.