Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun 28;24(6):e31921.
doi: 10.2196/31921.

What are Digital Public Health Interventions? First Steps Toward a Definition and an Intervention Classification Framework

Julian Wienert #  1   2   3 , Tina Jahnel  1   4 , Laura Maaß #  1   5
Affiliations

What are Digital Public Health Interventions? First Steps Toward a Definition and an Intervention Classification Framework

Julian Wienert et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Digital public health is an emerging field in population-based research and practice. The fast development of digital technologies provides a fundamentally new understanding of improving public health by using digitalization, especially in prevention and health promotion. The first step toward a better understanding of digital public health is to conceptualize the subject of the assessment by defining what digital public health interventions are. This is important, as one cannot evaluate tools if one does not know what precisely an intervention in this field can be. Therefore, this study aims to provide the first definition of digital public health interventions. We will merge leading models for public health functions by the World Health Organization, a framework for digital health technologies by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and a user-centered approach to intervention development. Together, they provide an overview of the functions and areas of use for digital public health interventions. Nevertheless, one must keep in mind that public health functions can differ among different health care systems, limiting our new framework's universal validity. We conclude that a digital public health intervention should address essential public health functions through digital means. Furthermore, it should include members of the target group in the development process to improve social acceptance and achieve a population health impact.

Keywords: digital Public Health; digital health; digital health technologies; digital public health interventions; eHealth; framework; mHealth; mobile phone; participatory approach.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Core field of action and target group level of mHealth, eHealth, digital health, and digital public health [7-15]. mHealth: mobile health.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Conceptual pyramid for a framework of digital public health interventions [4-6]. NICE: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence; WHO: World Health Organization.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic representation of the user-centered design process [28].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Schoeppe S, Alley S, Van Lippevelde W, Bray NA, Williams SL, Duncan MJ, Vandelanotte C. Efficacy of interventions that use apps to improve diet, physical activity and sedentary behaviour: a systematic review. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2016 Dec 07;13(1):127. doi: 10.1186/s12966-016-0454-y. https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-016-0454-y 10.1186/s12966-016-0454-y - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zeeb H, Pigeot I, Schüz B. [Digital public health-rapid technological progress, but many open public health questions] Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz. 2020 Feb;63(2):135–6. doi: 10.1007/s00103-020-03092-0. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/31960072 10.1007/s00103-020-03092-0 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Murray E, Hekler EB, Andersson G, Collins LM, Doherty A, Hollis C, Rivera DE, West R, Wyatt JC. Evaluating digital health interventions: key questions and approaches. Am J Prev Med. 2016 Nov;51(5):843–51. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2016.06.008. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/27745684 S0749-3797(16)30229-X - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Essential Public Health Functions, Health Systems and Health Security Developing Conceptual Clarity and a WHO Roadmap for Action. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2018.
    1. Evidence standards framework for digital health technologies. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. [2022-02-17]. https://www.nice.org.uk/Media/Default/About/what-we-do/our-programmes/ev... .

Publication types