Use of health self-management platform features: The case of a specialist ehealth app

Specialist digital platforms are enabling unprecedented opportunities for changing routines in the context of health self-management. The emergence of app features for self-management of chronic conditions is transforming the use of digital platforms. In this respect, many developers struggle to understand how diverse users use different features for health self-management. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between user characteristics and their use of three common features in specialist healthcare platforms, namely app exercises, app lessons, and app messages. The results indicate that the use of each platform feature may be associated with particular user characteristics. Specifically, pain intensity is positively related to the use of exercises, lessons, and messaging features for health self-management, while the relationships between app use and physical activity, fear of movement, and other chronic conditions vary with the app feature. Thus, our findings highlight the complexity of the use of digital platform features for self-management of chronic conditions.