eHealth and mHealth-Definitions, Theories, Models, and Applications

Introduction

eHealth and mhealth are becoming essential components of the healthcare system (Moss et al., 2019) with many benefits to healthcare and people (Bull, 2011; van Gemert-Pijnen et al., 2018). This includes the area of ehealth and mhealth education that draws from many interconnected fields. The design of such interventions is grounded in education, health, behavioral psychology, communication, and technology, among several others. However, the links between these fields can be ambiguous and complex. The theoretical underpinnings of each as well as the related models expand and shift - a natural phenomenon in all systems. Reigeluth (2019) affirmed, “for a system to be healthy, it must coevolve with its environment: It changes in response to changes in its environment, and its environment changes in response to its changes” (p.2). These changes are driven by changed societal needs. They perturb the system, transform it, and create shifts in thinking (Reigeluth, 2019). These changes are also driven by advancements in the fields, introducing new terms and leading to definitions that are context-dependent (Mil & Henman, 2016; Oh et al., 2005), overlapping, intersecting, and focusing on various factors (Noesgaard & Ørngreen, 2015). Therefore, to clarify the confusion around their use in the literature and in the book, this chapter begins with an overview of key concepts and terms related to ehealth and mhealth, in addition to elearning and mlearning that are fundamental in the design of health education interventions. This is followed by a discussion of select ehealth and mhealth theories that examine the factors that prompt health behavior. Next, elearning design principles that play an important role in the design of interventions are explained. The last section of the chapter addresses ehealth and mhealth uses in the health field, prominent applications, their benefits, and their challenges.