The Perceived Benefits of Digital Interventions for Behavioral Health: Qualitative Interview Study

Interviewees described a number of important potential benefits of digital interventions, particularly with respect to scientific rigor, scalability, and overcoming barriers to reaching more people. There are complex considerations with regard to translating behavior change strategies into digital forms of delivery, and interventionists make individual, sometimes unexpected, choices with minimal evidence of their relative effectiveness. Future research should investigate how behavioral researchers can be supported in making these choices toward usability, ease of access, and approachability of digital interventions. Our study underscores the need for authoring platforms that can facilitate the process of creating and deploying digital interventions to reach their full potential for interventionists and recipients alike.