# User Personas for eHealth Regarding the Self-Management of Depressive Symptoms in People Living With HIV: Mixed Methods Study

## TL;DR

This study identifies three user personas for eHealth tools to help people with HIV manage depression, highlighting the need for personalized approaches to improve engagement.

## Contribution

The study introduces three distinct user personas for eHealth self-management of depressive symptoms in people living with HIV.

## Key findings

- Three user personas were identified: high-level, medium-level, and low-level self-managers based on self-efficacy and eHealth literacy.
- High-level self-managers desired eHealth tools with high usability and support for depression management.
- Low-level self-managers preferred free, private eHealth guidance from professionals.

## Abstract

eHealth has enormous potential to support the self-management of depressive symptoms in people living with HIV. However, a lack of personalization is an important barrier to user engagement with eHealth. According to goal-directed design, personalized eHealth requires the identification of user personas before concrete design to understand the goals and needs of different users.

This study aimed to identify user personas for eHealth regarding the self-management of depressive symptoms in people living with HIV and explore the goals and needs of different user personas for future eHealth.

We used an explanatory sequential mixed methods design at the First Hospital of Changsha City, Hunan Province, China, from April to October 2022. In the quantitative phase, 572 people living with HIV completed validated questionnaires with questions related to demographics, self-efficacy, self-management abilities of depressive symptoms, and eHealth literacy. Latent profile analysis was performed to identify different user personas. In the qualitative phase, 43 one-to-one semistructured interviews across different user personas were conducted, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using conventional content analysis. The findings from both phases were integrated during the interpretation phase.

Three types of user personas could be identified, including “high-level self-managers” (254/572, 44.4%), “medium-level self-managers” (283/572, 49.5%), and “low-level self-managers” (35/572, 6.1%). High-level self-managers had relatively high levels of self-efficacy, self-management abilities of depressive symptoms, and eHealth literacy. High-level self-managers had a positive attitude toward using eHealth for the self-management of depressive symptoms and desired access to self-management support for depressive symptoms from eHealth with high usability. Medium-level self-managers had relatively medium levels of self-efficacy, self-management abilities of depressive symptoms, and eHealth literacy. Medium-level self-managers felt burdened by using eHealth for the self-management of depressive symptoms and preferred to access self-management support for HIV from eHealth with privacy. Low-level self-managers had relatively low levels of self-efficacy, self-management abilities of depressive symptoms, and eHealth literacy. Low-level self-managers had an acceptable attitude toward using eHealth for the self-management of depressive symptoms and desired access to professional guidance from eHealth with privacy and no cost (“free of charge”).

The 3 user personas shed light on the possibility of personalized eHealth to support the self-management of depressive symptoms in different people living with HIV. Further research is needed to examine the generalizability of the user personas across study sites.