Table 2:

Summary of studies on barriers to digital health in rural areas

Author Year of study	Setting	Participants	Technology used	Researchmethodology	Main outcomes
Shiferaw, K et al 202062	Northwest Ethiopia	Internet-using chronic patients	eHEALS	Cross-sectional	Factors influencing eHealth literacy; need for improvement in eHealth literacy among chronic patients in low-income settings.
Cortelyou-Ward, K et al 202056	Rural areas	N/A	Telehealth services	Review	Structural barriers in adopting telehealth; issues like broadband access, interstate licensing, reimbursement, policy recommendations for improving rural telehealth access.
Patten, C et al 202264	Rural areas of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa	Rural adult smokers	Online smoking cessation program	3-arm randomized parallel-group design	Feasibility and effectiveness in engaging participants with smoking cessation; impact of technology access and coaching on program participation.
Cheng, W et al 202265	Guangdong Province, China	Village doctors, rural residents	"Dingbei Doctor" telemedicine platform	Cluster randomized, controlled trial	Impact on health care quality and access in rural areas; effectiveness of telemedicine in improving health care utilization, patient satisfaction, and outcomes.
Holst, C et al 202261	Rural Iringa, Tanzania	Residents aged 15–45 y	Digital health education platforms	Nonrandomized intervention	Improvement in health knowledge about HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, etc; effectiveness of digital health education in rural areas.
Du, Y et al 202252	Rural areas of Guangdong Province, China	Rural residents	Telemedicine services	Mixed methods (cross-sectional survey, interviews)	Low use of telemedicine; barriers like lack of knowledge, trust, digital literacy, strategies for enhancing telemedicine engagement.
Rasekaba, T et al 202263	Rural areas of Mysore and Suttur, India	Older adults	Cartelli digital literacy framework	Mixed methods cross-sectional focus group, survey	Low technology usage, limited digital and health literacy, role of social support in enabling technology use for health care.
Bruch, D et al 202366	Germany	Patients with arterial hypertension, physicians	Telemonitoring systems, E-learning platforms and educational materials, mHealth applications, digital questionnaires and interviews	Mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative)	Factors influencing use of digital measures for hypertension, impact on health literacy, improving hypertension prevention services.
Udegbe, B et al 202355	N/A	N/A	N/A	Review	Challenges and disparities in telemedicine in obstetrics, impact of the digital divide on health equity, necessity to overcome barriers for equitable access.

eHEALS, eHealth Literacy Scale.