User-centered Design of mHealth Tools For Understanding and Addressing Alcohol Use in Young Adults

Open Access
- Author:
- Kunchay, Sahiti
- Graduate Program:
- Information Sciences and Technology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 31, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Xinning Gui, Major Field Member
Saeed Abdullah, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Ashley Linden-Carmichael, Outside Unit & Field Member
Amulya Yadav, Major Field Member
Dongwon Lee, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies - Keywords:
- mHealth
smartwatches
user-centered design
human-computer interaction
ubiquitous computing - Abstract:
- Young adults have some of the highest rates of alcohol use across all age groups. According to the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), young adults aged 18 to 25 in the U.S. have the second highest rates of alcohol use (50.2 percent or 17.5 million people) among people aged 12 and over. Importantly, heavy and frequent use can be associated with a host of acute and chronic health and mental health concerns within this age group. Thus, developing solutions to understand and mitigate harmful patterns of alcohol use, as well as to reduce their adverse impact, is an essential component of ensuring young adults’ physical, mental, and social well-being. Recent advances in ubiquitous technologies have prompted interest and innovation in using mobile health (mHealth) tools to understand alcohol use and associated its harms, as well as to provide interventions that can potentially reduce the individual and collective burden of alcohol use. Due to the high penetration of technology in young adults’ lives, such approaches hold significant promise. However, there are several persistent challenges that hinder the usability and effectiveness of such applications: low compliance and engagement within data collection applications, and lack of sustained engagement and adherence with respect to intervention applications. This dissertation aims to address key issues in these technological approaches through a human-centered approach. Towards that effort, I describe three empirical user studies I conducted over the course of my PhD. The findings from these user studies demonstrate that using smartwatches as a part of data collection efforts in this research domain can increase the amount of both self-report and sensor data collected in longitudinal studies. Moreover, the data collected from personal health devices, such as smartwatches and other wearables, can inform interventions that young adults are enthusiastic about by illustrating how alcohol consumption affects their health and wellbeing. Cumulatively, this dissertation contributes to the design of contemporary technological tools that can enhance our understanding of young adult alcohol use as well as provide effective interventions that are attentive to young adults’ needs and concerns.