© DragonImages / Adobe Stock
Chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) belong to the most common and expensive health problems in industrialized countries. In bringing chronic diseases under control and improving the quality of life of patients, self-management plays an important role. Digital media are predestined to facilitate this self-management, and initial studies on their use have shown promising results.
“Due to theoretical and methodological weaknesses, however, these research findings usually lack external validity – that is to say, transferability to real life,” says Professor Constanze Rossmann, Chair of Media and Communication at LMU and head of the new DFG research unit DISELMA (Digital Media in Chronic Disease Self-Management). Among other reasons, this is because randomized controlled trials, as they are typically used in medical research, frequently observe just one specific app or a limited time period.
“But from our studies on diseases such as diabetes, we know for instance that patients make use of the entire mobile ecosystem, and that they may not utilize any particular resource for an extended period of time,” says Rossmann. Therefore, the scientists want to seek out new approaches within the research unit and take a comprehensive look at the role of digital media. To this end, they will study the interplay of the usage and effects of digital media at the individual level over a longer timeframe.
