Thinking about the environment and theorising change: how could Life History Strategy Theory inform mHealth interventions in low- and middle-income countries?

摘要

Background: There is a growing body of literature outlining the promise of mobile information and communication technologies to improve healthcare in resource-constrained contexts.Methods: We reviewed the literature related to mobile information and communication technologies which aim to improve healthcare in resource-constrained contexts, in order to glean general observations regarding the state of mHealth in high-income countries (HIC) and low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).Results: mHealth interventions in LMIC often differ substantively from those in HIC, with the former being simpler, delivered through a single digital component (an SMS as opposed to a mobile phone application, or ‘app’), and, as a result, targeting only one of the many factors which impact on the activation (or deactivation) of the target behaviour. Almost as a rule, LMIC mHealth interventions lack an explicit theory of change.Conclusion: We highlight the necessity, when designing mHealth interventions, of having a th...