Positive user experience is crucial for technology end-users and software development companies. Even though a variety of factors can determine user experience, the personal relevance of technology plays one of the most critical roles in defining the nature of user experience with technology. Nevertheless, it is not completely clear what the personal relevance of technology entails or how to measure this construct. Clarifying and operationalizing the construct of personal relevance can benefit a wide range of contexts of technology use. Healthcare and digital health technologies (DHTs) seem to stand out remarkably. DHTs, such as mobile health applications and web-based programs, are gaining increasing attention in chronic disease self-management. User engagement, the major aspect of user experience with DHTs, is critical for driving health behavior changes and improving health outcomes. Yet, user engagement with DHTs remains problematic. The literature recognizes that creating personally relevant DHTs can be a possible solution to low user engagement, but no study conceptualizes and operationalizes this construct. Thus, this study aims to clarify and operationalize digital health relevance. We leverage the biopsychosocial model of health, which can explicate the healthcare user context in terms of biological, psychological, and social dimensions, to clarify and create a measurement instrument. The study consists of three phases. Phase 1 (construct definition and item generation) used 23 semi-structured interviews to explore the nature of the DHT’s relevance and create the item pool. Phase 2 (theoretical analysis) involved an expert panel of 7 individuals to establish the content validity of the item pool created in Phase 1. Finally, Phase 3 (psychometrical analysis) consisted of conducting closed-ended surveys to revise the preliminary version of the measurement instrument developed in Phase 2 and establish the construct validity. During Phase 3, we recruited 225 individuals who completed the survey and conducted PLS-SEM on survey data. Our study contributes to information systems, health informatics, and healthcare. First, our study provides conceptual clarity into the nature of technology relevance and, particularly, digital health relevance. Furthermore, our measurement instrument can be used to guide the design and development of DHTs for chronic conditions. Finally, patients and health providers can use our measurement instrument as a decision aid to select and prescribe DHTs that are most relevant to specific patients.
