Digital health is a “network of digital health communities consisting of interconnected, interrelated and interdependent digital health species, including healthcare stakeholders, healthcare institutions and digital healthcare devices situated in a digital health environment, who adopt the best-demonstrated practices that have been proven to be successful, and implementation of those practices through the use of information and communication technologies to monitor and improve the wellbeing and health of patients, to empower patients in the management of their health and that of their families” ( Iyawa et al., 2016a , p.249).
Published in Chapter:
mHealth as Tools for Development in Mental Health
Gloria Ejehiohen Iyawa (Namibia University of Science and Technology, Namibia), Julie Langan-Martin (University of Glasgow, UK), Stephen Sevalie (University of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone), and Wanano Masikara (Nanosoft Designs, Botswana)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 23
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-0047-7.ch004
Abstract
This chapter provides an assessment of studies on mobile health (mHealth) tools for development in addressing diseases relating to mental health, informs the current publications trends, identifies research gaps in the existing literature, and suggests a future research agenda that can help address these gaps. We, therefore, assessed empirical studies using a Systematic Mapping Study approach. We searched five academic databases as well as Google Search Engine and Google Scholar. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 54 full-text papers were included in this chapter. The findings suggest a growing trend in the use of various mHealth tools for mental health, such as mobile apps and text messaging. The findings also suggest that the responsibility of health monitoring and management can be shared between the medical practitioner and the patient in mental healthcare. Research gaps were identified and areas for future research are proposed.