Participatory Digital Interventions - Barriers and Approaches

Over the last few years, digital participatory research approaches to address public health issues have gained attention. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its prevention measures such as physical distancing have amplified the need to study and further develop different forms of digital participation and understand their barriers. While offline participatory public health research is susceptible to overrepresentation of certain demographic groups (e.g., groups with high socioeconomic status), digital participatory approaches have the chance to reach groups that tend to be underrepresented in public health research. However, online participatory approaches have several structural barriers as for instance access to and speed of the internet. Moreover, many digital approaches require high literacy and experience with a computer. It is therefore important to continue developing and testing alternative formats of digital participation that have the potential to overcome issues of inequity in participation.

The overarching goal of this project is to gain a better understanding of the current state of knowledge on digital participatory public health interventions and to set up a study that investigates alternative approaches and its barriers. To get an overview of the available approaches and their limitations, a rapid review will first be conducted and published. Next, a digital participatory intervention study will be prepared that aims testing novel approaches and its barriers in different gender and age groups. A partnering event with researchers and local stakeholders will be held to discuss and plan the study. This will ensure stakeholders involvement from early on. Based on the results of the rapid review and the partnering event, a joint research proposal will be written and submitted for third-party funding.

Contact

Friederike Doerwald-Leicher
University of Bremen
Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP)
Grazer Straße 2a, room A1050
28359 Bremen

Phone: +49 421 218-68863
E-Mail: doerwald@uni-bremen.de