Editorial: Digital interventions and serious mobile games for health in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs (original) (raw)
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Frontiers in Public Health, 2022
The African gaming industry is beginning to flourish as a result of a rise in the availability of inexpensive phones and the number of mobile phone subscribers. It has enabled the development and implementation of mobile serious games to promote healthy behavior change in rural communities. This paper examines the use of mobile serious games in healthcare education, with a particular focus on those designed to increase health literacy in rural Africa. Identifying and addressing the design challenges and issues faced by people living in rural African communities through the use of persuasive mobile games can promote behavior change among these underserved communities. We used PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar and manual search to identify relevant studies published from to July. The literature review highlights how the identified challenges a ect the implementation of persuasive strategies, suggests design solutions for overcoming them, and discusses how persuasive games can be tailored to suit the target rural African populations. Some of the identified challenges are technical in nature (e.g., access to electricity and internet connectivity), while others are not (e.g., language diversity and low literacy). As the number of serious games for healthcare education and awareness continues to increase, it is essential for the successful implementation of inclusive mobile health technologies in rural Africa to identify and address the specific challenges faced by underserved populations such as rural African communities.
BMC Public Health, 2020
Background Mobile technology is increasingly important for delivering public health interventions to remote populations. This research study developed, piloted, and assessed a serious game for mobile devices that teaches geohazard, maternal, and neonatal health messages. This unique mHealth intervention aimed at low-literacy audiences in low resource settings is part of the Maternal and Neonatal Technologies in Rural Areas (MANTRA) project: Increasing maternal and child health resilience before, during, and after disasters using mobile technology in Nepal. Methods The serious game was developed through a co-creation process between London and Kathmandu based researchers by email and video-calling, and face-to-face with local stakeholders in Nepal. The process identified core needs, developed appropriate pictograms and mechanics, and tailored the pilot serious game to the local cultural context. Evaluations and feedback from end users took place in rural villages and suburban Kathman...
A Systematic Review on Improving Health Literacy in Rural Africa Using Mobile Serious Games
Studies in Health Technology and Informatics
Driven by an increase in the availability of cheap low-cost mobile phones and a jump in the number of telecom subscribers, the African gaming world is booming. Most importantly, it has opened an opportunity for rural communities to have an almost identical mobile phone experience than people living in urban areas. It has also opened an opportunity to leverage this high penetration of mobile devices to design mobile-based applications such as mobile serious games. The latter assists individuals living in these communities to modify, change or shape their behaviors and attitudes desirably. This paper reviews mobile serious games in healthcare education, especially those intended to improve health literacy in rural Africa. The challenges and issues encountered in the design and use of persuasive mobile games as a tool can promote behavior change among people living in the rural African communities.
Mobile Health Literacy to Improve Health Outcomes in Low-Middle Income Countries
2017
Despite improvements in health indicators over time, such as decreased mortality and morbidity, significant challenges remain with regard to the quality in the delivery of healthcare in low and middle-income countries (LMIC’s), especially in rural and remote regions of developing countries. In the effort to find feasible solutions to these issues, a lot of importance is given to the information and communication technologies (ICTs) The author reviews the evidence of the role mobile phones facilitating health literacy to contribute to improved health outcomes in the LMIC’s. This was done by exploring the results of ten projects. The author examines the extent to which the use of mobile phones could help improve health outcomes in two specific ways: in improving health literacy and promoting health and well-being, thus increasing life expectancy in LMIC’s. Analysis of the papers indicates that there is important evidence of mobile phones boosting increased access, prom...
Mobile Health, Developing Countries
The International Encyclopedia of Health Communication., 2023
Mobile health (mHealth, m-health) technologies are poised to transform healthcare service delivery and self-care in low-resource environments of developing countries. Originally conceived of as a range of mobile, sensor, and wireless technologies for healthcare delivery, these technologies improved information exchange and communication services in countries encumbered by limited medical infrastructure, shortage of trained personnel, and high incidence of communicable diseases. In the introductory period, limitations to telecommunication access for the general population meant that mHealth interventions were primarily implemented by the formal healthcare system as an organizational-level solution. In developing countries, mobile devices and Internet-enabled systems enable the transfer of high-quality medical information and resources between areas with differential healthcare resources. Typically, mobile phone-based communications enable frontline healthcare workers in remote areas to reach health professionals in urban areas, allowing for coordination amongst widely dispersed medical personnel, training for community healthcare workers, remote monitoring of programs, and dissemination of information to the community (Agarwal et al., 2015). However, the unprecedented growth and ubiquitous spread of mobile phone accessibility to most of the global population, accompanied by increased affordability, has addressed concerns related to the digital divide. By the end of the second decade of the millennium, mobile networks cover almost the entire global population, with 93% being able to access mobile broadband networks. The organic adoption of mobile devices and solutions by individuals has led to mHealth increasingly being viewed in terms of its potential as a consumer-level health management tool. The notion is that by using mHealth technologies, such as texts, apps, and wearables, people can conveniently collect, analyze, and share their own health information.
Health Education Journal, 2019
Objective: mHealth interventions often favour individual-level effects. This is particularly problematic in contexts where social support and shifts in social norms are critical to sustained behaviour change. Mobile digital games represent a promising health education strategy for youth, including in low-resource settings. We sought to better understand the interpersonal and social interactions that can be elicited by digital games for health. Design: We piloted Tumaini, a smartphone game rooted in interactive narrative designed to prevent HIV among young Africans (aged 11–14), in a randomised controlled feasibility study and analysed reports of the household dynamics surrounding gameplay. Following a 16-day intervention period, phone gameplay log files were downloaded, and intervention arm participants ( n = 30) completed a gameplay experience survey; eight focus group discussions were held, four with intervention arm participants ( n = 27) and four with their parents ( n = 22). Se...
2019
Mobile health (mHealth), or the use of mobile technology to improve health, is a rapidly expanding field. There have been a number of intervention studies based on mobile apps and most of these focused on specific medical issues. A majority of the available health apps are for health and wellness promotion and disease prevention for the general public. But the pace of traditional academic research is slow and less nimble relative to commercial app development resulting in huge lags in dissemination into commercial settings for public health. This paper assessed the content, usability and efficacy of the commercially launched digital healthcare platform developed by CMED Health for the purpose of preventing major noncommunicable diseases in the rural communities of Bangladesh. A combining approach of quantitative, qualitative and participant observation were used in this study following the principles and process of Action Research methodology. The study evaluated the CMED health app...
Mobile Health (mHealth) in the Developing World: Two Decades of Progress or Retrogression
Journal of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth
Mobile healthcare, or mHealth, is one of the key pillars of information and communication technologies for healthcare that consists of telemedicine, telehealth, eHealth, and mHealth. In the past two decades, mobile health has become a transformative concept for healthcare delivery innovations on a global scale. The success was based on the market-driven strategies that utilised the advances in mobile communications, computing, and sensor technologies, especially in recent years. Those market-driven mobile health systems were also closely associated with the global proliferation of smartphones, and based on the correlated usage principle of the smartphone applications for healthcare and wellbeing. However, the global commercial success of the smartphone-based mHealth model was not widely translated into successful scaled-up and tangible healthcare benefits, especially in low- and-middle income countries, compared to the consumer mobile health markets. The numerous healthcare challeng...
IMIA Yearbook, 2014
Summary Objectives: Evolving technology and infrastructure can benefit patients even in the poorest countries through mobile health (mHealth). Yet, what makes mobile-phone-based services succeed in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) and what opportunities does the future hold that still need to be studied. We showcase demonstrator services that leverage mobile phones in the hands of patients to promote health and facilitate health care. Methods: We surveyed the recent biomedical literature for demonstrator services that illustrate well-considered examples of mobile phone interventions for consumer health. We draw upon those examples to discuss enabling factors, scalability, reach, and potential of mHealth as well as obstacles in LMIC. Results: Among the 227 articles returned by a PubMed search, we identified 55 articles that describe services targeting health consumers equipped with mobile phones. From those articles, we showcase 19 as demonstrator services across clinical care,...