The Promise of Digital Self-Management: A Reflection about the Effects of Patient-Targeted e-Health Tools on Self-Management and Wellbeing

Abstract

Increasingly, people have direct access to e-Health resources such as health information on the Internet, personal health portals, and wearable self-management applications, which have the potential to reinforce the simultaneously growing focus on self-management and wellbeing. To examine these relationships, we searched using keywords self-management, patient-targeting e-Health tools, and health as wellbeing. Direct access to the health information on the Internet or diagnostic apps on a smartphone can help people to self-manage health issues, but also leads to uncertainty, stress, and avoidance. Uncertainties relate to the quality of information and to use and misuse of information. Most self-management support programs focus on medical management. The relationship between self-management and wellbeing is not straightforward. While the influence of stress and negative social emotions on self-management is recognized as an important cause of the negative spiral, empirical research on this topic is limited to health literacy studies. Evidence on health apps showed positive effects on specific actions and symptoms and potential for increasing awareness and ownership by people. Effects on more complex behaviors such as participation cannot be established. This review discovers relatively unknown and understudied angles and perspectives about the relationship between e-Health, self-management, and wellbeing.