Research

Monitoring Receptivity to Online Messages

Reaching the recipient of online health messages is necessary to Web-based health promotion applications. To measure willingness to adhere to a health-related Web message, RIWI CEO Neil Seeman and RIWI Director Bob Seeman explored the frequency with which more than 13 million Web users ignored or opted to receive a random inbound message. They studied Web traffic data on “interruptibility” of 13.1 million US web users to study the best timing, approaches and methods to “interrupt” someone to deliver the most effective health message, monitoring or drug adherence reminder. Whether the message is about digital health or countering violent extremism in any region of the world, the novel methods unveiled in this study can be applied. The findings were released in a journal paper on October 27th, 2017 (pre-release ahead of print) in Healthcare Quarterly.

The findings suggest declining curiosity among Web users about online messages, and that certain days may be more propitious than others for communicating with users. This approach can be modified to gather more granular insights into how messages, including timing and design features, can be tailored to promote improved public health messaging. 

Click here to read the full journal article.

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