OBJECTIVES: In the United States, addiction has cost the government more than US $700 billion a year in terms of health care and other associated costs. Efforts to leverage the rapidly growing consumer health information technologies (CHITs) to combat the rising substance abuse epidemic has been underway. This review aimed to provide a holistic view of the breadth of research on primary prevention of substance abuse using CHIT that has been conducted over nearly past five decades.

METHODS: We conducted a scoping review using the Arksey and O’Malley modified methodological framework. We searched 4 electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, and EMBASE). Papers were included if the studies addressed the use of CHIT for primary prevention of substance abuse, and were published in English between 1809 and 2018. Studies that did not focus solely on primary prevention of substance abuse or assessed additional comorbid conditions were eliminated.

RESULTS: 42 papers that met our inclusion criteria were included in the review. These studies were published between 1970 and 2018 and were not restricted by geography, age, race, or sex. The review mapped studies using the most commonly used CHIT platforms for substance abuse prevention from mass media in the 1970's to mobile and social media in 2018. Many of the studies included used interventions based on different behavioral theories such as family interactions, social cognitive theories, and harm-minimization framework.

CONCLUSIONS: This review found CHIT platforms to be efficacious and cost-effective in the real-world settings. We not only observed a gradual shift in the types and use of CHIT platforms, but also detected a shift in consumer preferences and behaviors from face-to-face interactions to technology-based platforms. However, studies included in this review only focused on the aspect of primary prevention. Future reviews should assess the effectiveness of CHIT platforms for secondary prevention.