An mHealth Approach to Addressing Health Inequity
ABSTRACT: Little is known at the local level how mHealth interventions support consumers’ goal of a healthy lifestyle and the impact of mHealth interventions on providing equitable care. This paper investigates: 1) the social determinants of health (SDOH) that affect the ability of people to be healthy and 2) clinicians use of mHealth interventions to facilitate equitable provision of healthcare. Socioeconomic and health data was collected from all 93 Nebraska counties. A positive correlation was found between the ability of people to be healthy and their access to health insurance and fresh food. A correlation was also discovered between poverty and the ability of people to be healthy and access food. A mobile app was then developed to provide information on available community resources for patients of a student-run free clinic. The contribution of this study is determining how mHealth can be used as a sustainable health equity intervention.
Keywords: Health equity, Social determinants of health, mHealth, Systems engineering, Sustainable development
Role of Social Determinants of Health in building an mHealth application
ABSTRACT: The pandemic has shown that the health of those with the least resources affects the rest of the population. Social determinants of health effect health disparities leading to greater inequities between those with and those without the resources needed to stay healthy. In order to help people, find resources they need to stay healthy, an mHealth application was created. Data was collected through this mobile application to investigate: what are the social determinants of health resources (SDOH) that are needed to address health inequities? Using this data, an mHealth prototype was developed to help understand whether the application can be useful in addressing the health inequities in a local community. Following a design science approach, the analysis suggests that resources for some social determinants of health are more useful than others. The contribution of this paper is in uncovering the SDOH resources that are needed to address the health inequities.
Keywords: Health equity, Social determinants of health
Social Determinants of Health Inequities and Human Development: Is there a role for mHealth in overcoming health inequities?
ABSTRACT: The spread of the pandemic in recent years has disproportionately affected people who are unable to access the basic resources needed to survive. Such resources include but are not limited to food, shelter, capital and the ability to find the information they need to stay healthy. These socioeconomic factors influence the manner in which people and communities are able to recover. This paper investigates the relationship between social determinants of health and human development and the role of mHealth in overcoming health inequities. Data was collected for 27 variables from 189 countries through the United Nations, World Bank and the World Health Organization’s databases. Following an analysis of a model comprising of indices created to test a set of hypotheses, this paper offers unique insight into the social determinants of health that can be overcome through mHealth. The contribution of this paper is in uncovering the social determinants of health that are related to human development and how mhealth access is related to social determinants of health and the Human Development Index. This has implications for how inequalities may be addressed through mobile health applications to bring about human development.
Keywords: Health equity, Social determinants of health, mHealth, Health inequity
