Clarifying the Concepts of Personalization and Tailoring of eHealth Technologies: Multimethod Qualitative Study.

Background: Although personalization and tailoring have been identified as alternatives to a "one-size-fits-all" approach for eHealth technologies, there is no common understanding of these two concepts and how they should be applied.

Objective: This study aims to describe (1) how tailoring and personalization are defined in the literature and by eHealth experts, and what the differences and similarities are; (2) what type of variables can be used to segment eHealth users into more homogeneous groups or at the individual level; (3) what elements of eHealth technologies are adapted to these segments; and (4) how the segments are matched with eHealth adaptations.

Methods: We used a multimethod qualitative study design.