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