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Substance use among college and university students is associated with significant health issues, academic struggles, and premature death. This scoping review examines digital health interventions, including mobile and internet platforms, targeting substance use reduction among college students in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A comprehensive search across databases such as PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Google Scholar identified 8 eligible studies conducted across seven countries between 2013 and 2025. These studies focused primarily on alcohol use and included digital health tools like instant messaging, Telegram applications, text messaging, and web-based interventions. The results suggest that digital health technologies can effectively motivate college students in LMICs to reduce or abstain from psychoactive substance use. However, there is a notable research gap in evaluating the effectiveness and feasibility of these tools, especially mobile text messaging, which remains one of the most widely used methods in LMICs. The review highlights the need for further research, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses, to better understand the impact of digital health interventions on substance use reduction and to develop evidence-based programs for behavior change.<\/ns3:p>","DOI":"10.12688\/f1000research.163565.3","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]],"date-time":"2025-10-09T09:10:26Z","timestamp":1760001026000},"page":"456","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/f1000research.crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Application of digital health technologies to substance use reduction among students in higher education institutions: A scoping review"],"prefix":"10.12688","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7195-4827","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mistire Teshome","family":"Guta","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Fira","family":"Abamecha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Demuma","family":"Amdisa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kalkidan Hassen Abate","family":"Abate","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"2560","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"103-117","DOI":"10.1177\/2167696818791603","article-title":"Navigating the college years: Developmental trajectories and gender differences in psychological functioning, cognitive-affective strategies, and social well-being.","volume":"8","author":"C Conley","year":"2020","journal-title":"Emerg. 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Thesis."}],"container-title":["F1000Research"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-456\/v3\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-456\/v3\/pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-456\/v3\/iparadigms","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,5]],"date-time":"2025-11-05T09:15:12Z","timestamp":1762334112000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-456\/v3"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]]},"references-count":71,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/f1000research.163565.3","relation":{"has-version":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.12688\/f1000research.163565.2","asserted-by":"subject"},{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.12688\/f1000research.163565.1","asserted-by":"subject"}],"has-review":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.5256\/f1000research.189275.r421965","asserted-by":"subject"},{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.5256\/f1000research.189275.r423047","asserted-by":"subject"},{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.5256\/f1000research.189275.r421965","asserted-by":"object"},{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.5256\/f1000research.189275.r423047","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["2046-1402"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2046-1402","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]]},"assertion":[{"value":"Indexed","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-456\/v3#article-reports","order":0,"name":"referee-status","label":"Referee status","group":{"name":"current-referee-status","label":"Current Referee Status"}},{"value":"10.5256\/f1000research.189275.r421965, Katarina Ulfsdotter Gunnarsson, Link\u00f6ping University, Link\u00f6ping, 28 Oct 2025, version 3, indexed","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-456\/v3#referee-response-421965","order":0,"name":"referee-response-421965","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.5256\/f1000research.184204.r401120, Chunqing Lin, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 27 Aug 2025, version 2, 1 approved with reservations, 1 not approved","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-456\/v2#referee-response-401120","order":1,"name":"referee-response-401120","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"<b>Mistire Teshome Guta<\/b>; \n<i>Posted: 01 Oct 2025<\/i>; Point by point response First we like to thank the reviewer for his supporting comments and time. This article reviews current digital interventions to prevent and reduce substance use among college students in low- and middle-income countries. The topic is timely and important. I have the following comments to improve clarity and rigor:  Please explain the rationale for including non-RCT designs (e.g., qualitative studies, cross-sectional designs) given the stated objective of exploring effectiveness. Note that intervention effectiveness cannot be evaluated in a cross-sectional study.  R_ First of all we like to thank our respected reviewer for his\/her important observation. We are thinking that the term \u2018effectiveness\u2019 is too narrow and didn\u2019t align with our inclusion for the scoping review. &nbsp;So, we primarily aim in the scoping review to map the existing literatures in order to identify the key concepts, evidence gaps, types of available research. So, critically appraising and synthesizing the evidences for effectiveness is the goal of systematic review and meta-analysis.&nbsp; The effectiveness that we use in the methods section was as one of the outcomes that we charted and it wasn\u2019t used as a criterion for the inclusion. We believe that the qualitative studies and some cross-sectional studies are very important to provide insight to acceptability, feasibility and user perception for the digital intervention. So, we revise our objective: &nbsp;mapping and summarizing existing literature on types of digital health technologies used, their intended purposes, and reported outcomes that targeting substance use reduction among college students in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).  The definition of digital intervention is not clear. Was a predefined definition of &quot;digital intervention&quot; established prior to the review? The Methods section lists examples (\u201csuch as mobile apps, web-based interventions, and SMS\u201d), but it is unclear whether other formats, such as telehealth services, wearable devices, or other emerging technologies, were excluded by design or simply did not emerge from the scoping review.  R_ Yes, we adapt the definition from the WHO definition of the digital health intervention: \u2018the digital use, mobile and wireless technology for the achievements of the health objectives.\u2019 In our inclusion criteria we list technologies like mobile apps, web-based interventions, and SMS but we didn\u2019t excluded emerging technologies like wearable devices. Due to the current state on the published literature on our specific topic, we easily get more accessible technologies like SMS and web portals.  Please clarify whether article screening and data extraction were conducted by at least two independent reviewers, and whether double data extraction was performed.  R_ We would like to apologize for not reporting in the manuscript. In the screening process the titles, abstract and full texts were screened by two independent reviewers (MTG and FA) and any disagreements resolved through discussion among the reviewers or by consulting the third reviewer (KHA). Data extraction was done by two independent reviewers (MTG and DA) through using standardized data extraction form. The third reviewer (FA or KHA) were involved accordingly.  For the included studies, note that Hong Kong and South Korea are not classified as LMICs under World Bank criteria. Please clarify why they were included and whether this aligns with the stated inclusion criteria.  R_&nbsp; Sorry for our mistake and We remove the two studies from Hong Kong (Chau et al., 2023; Chau et al., 2024) and the one South Korea (Sharifi et al., 2019) then we run our analysis with 8 included studies.  In terms of study populations, in the paragraph describing sample sizes, it would be informative to clarify whether participants were general college students, those at higher risk, or individuals already engaging in substance use. In other words, please define the population characteristics more explicitly.  R_ We will revise the&nbsp;\u2018Characteristics of the studies\u2019&nbsp;subsection to explicitly grouped the participants for each study through clarifying about the general student population , at risk students and those participants engaged in the substance use.  There is some repetition in the Results section that could be streamlined to improve readability.  R_ Accepted and done.  A single table summarizing key characteristics of the included studies, such as study design, country, study population (with sample size), type of digital health intervention, targeted substances, and main outcomes, would greatly enhance clarity and allow readers to compare studies more easily.  R_ Accepted and done.","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-456\/v3#referee-comment-14699","order":2,"name":"referee-comment-14699","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.5256\/f1000research.189275.r423047, Glenn Sterner, Criminal Justice, University of Kentucky College of Social Work, Lexington, Kentucky, 05 Nov 2025, version 3, indexed","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/14-456\/v3#referee-response-423047","order":3,"name":"referee-response-423047","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work","order":4,"name":"grant-information","label":"Grant Information"},{"value":"This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.","order":0,"name":"copyright-info","label":"Copyright"}]}}