ArticleTrials2024
Digital health interventions for all? Examining inclusivity across all stages of the digital health intervention research process.
Article in Trials, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Inequalities in Exclusively Mobile Interventions Targeting Weight-Related Behaviors: Systematic Review of Observational Studies.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Pooled it
- Identifying Social Media-Based Interactions That Help Adults to Adhere to Weight Loss Goals: A Systematic Review.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Pooled it
- Digital health interventions for promoting adults lifestyle behaviors: who is being left behind? An evidence synthesis of social inequality.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Pooled it
- Enhancing patient knowledge and behaviour through digital health communication: a systematic review and random-effects meta-analysis of mobile, web-based, social media, telehealth, and AI-enabled interventions.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- The effectiveness of mobile app-based interventions in facilitating behaviour change towards healthier and more sustainable diets: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Pooled it
- Digital versus nondigital behavioral interventions on cardiovascular risk reduction: systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2025Pooled it
- A crowdsourced megastudy of 12 digital single-session interventions for depression in US adults.Nature human behaviour · 2026Trial
- An exploratory study to understand how rurality status and demographic characteristics are associated with enrollment, engagement, and retention in a digital health intervention targeting the Appalachian region.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2025Trial
- Systematic Review: Culturally Tailored Digital Substance Use Prevention Interventions for Black Adolescents.JAACAP open · 2026Review
- User Acceptability and Adoption of AI-Generated Lifestyle Intervention Recommendations: Scoping Review and Theoretical Integration.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Implementation Burden and Hidden Labor in a Multisite Digital Psychiatry Trial.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Digital Health Interventions for Diabetes Distress in Type 2 Diabetes: Protocol for a Scoping Literature Review Focused on Equity and Inclusion.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Using Group Chats to Drive Behavior Change in Digital Health Interventions: Scoping Review and Realist Synthesis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Use of Digital Peer Support for Employee Well-Being: Retrospective Analysis Across Five Large Employers.JMIR human factors · 2026Article
- Screening the Digital Skills of Patients in Geriatric Rehabilitation: Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Comparing Pregnant and Postpartum Client and Provider Feedback on a Digital Health Intervention for Substance Use Recovery: User-Centered Design Approach.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Developing a policy maturity model for prescription digital therapeutics based on expert consensus: protocol for an eDelphi study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Community Participatory Co-Design and Development of a Digital Diabetes Prevention Education Program for Hispanic Families With Obesity: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Using AI to Design and Develop Online Educational Modules to Enhance Lung Cancer Screening Uptake Among High-Risk Individuals.Cancers · 2026Article
- Bridging the divide in digital therapeutics (DTx): Partnership strategies for broader representation across DTx development and deployment.PLOS digital health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Digital interventions offer many possibilities for improving health, as remote interventions can enhance reach and access to underserved groups of society. However, research evaluating digital health interventions demonstrates that such technologies do not equally benefit all and that some in fact seem to reinforce a "digital health divide." By better understanding these potential pitfalls, we may contribute to narrowing the digital divide in health promotion. The aim of this article is to highlight and reflect upon study design decisions that might unintentionally enhance inequities across key research stages-recruitment, enrollment, engagement, efficacy/effectiveness, and retention. To address the concerns highlighted, we propose strategies including (1) the standard definition of "effectiveness" should be revised to include a measure of inclusivity; (2) studies should report a broad range of potential inequity indicators of participants recruited, randomized, and retained and should conduct sensitivity analyses examining potential sociodemographic differences for both the effect and engagement of the digital interventions; (3) participants from historically marginalized groups should be involved in the design of study procedures, including those related to recruitment, consent, intervention implementation and engagement, assessment, and retention; (4) eligibility criteria should be minimized and carefully selected and the screening process should be streamlined; (5) preregistration of trials should include recruitment benchmarks for sample diversity and comprehensive lists of sociodemographic characteristics assessed; and (6) studies within trials should be embedded to systematically test recruitment and retention strategies to improve inclusivity. The implementation of these strategies would enhance the ability of digital health trials to recruit, randomize, engage, and retain a broader and more representative population in trials, ultimately minimizing the digital divide and broadly improving population health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.