Health (Electronic/Mobile) Interventions for Non-Clinical Population in South Asian Region: Lessons and Implications from a Critical Realist Perspective

The field of electronic (eHealth) and mobile health (mHealth) is flourishing rapidly in the present scenario and a special group of experts and practitioners are exclusively and enthusiastically working in these domains. As a matter of fact, there are dedicated interest groups (forums) and journals (such as Internet Interventions and Journal of Medical Internet Research) which have proliferated after these developments. More importantly, European Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ESRII) and International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII) as two complementary consortiums have contributed heavily in these two areas. Despite having a progressive intent, these consortiums have focused more on European and American research agendas and are mostly limited to clinical samples suffering from varied psychopathologies. Moreover, there is a great dearth of research when it comes to other geographical regions (including the highly populated South-Asian region) and even the non-clinical population has not been provided adequate focus. Therefore, we present a critical realist perspective through a comprehensive review of such attempts catering exclusively to the South-Asian population of the world. The study intends to systematically analyze the available research studies and deduces inferences as lessons for expanding (mHealth & eHealth to South Asian region), integrate (clinical and non-clinical) and popularize (acceptance) the domains of eHealth and mHealth in other cultures.