ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Health Economics
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Health Technology Assessment and Patient-Reported Outcomes: Innovations and Implications for Health Economics and Outcomes ResearchView all 7 articles
Integrating Augmented Reality (AR) into Health Media Campaigns: Towards a More Behavioral Impact Economic Evaluation
Provisionally accepted
Mohammed Habes1*
Amirah Alzahrani2Areej Abdulllah Alfawaz3Suhib Y Bdoor1Razaz Attar3Amal Hassan Alhazmi3- 1Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan
- 2Department of Curricula and Instruction, College of Education, University of Bisha, Bishah, Saudi Arabia
- 3Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University College of Business Administration, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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This study investigates the efficacy and economic efficiency of augmented‐reality (AR)–enhanced health‐media campaigns in urban settings of Jordan, the Saudi Arabia. Employing a quasi‑experimental, comparative design, 600 adults aged 18–45 were randomly assigned to either an AR intervention—featuring interactive 3D simulations of smoking risks and vaccination mechanisms—or a conventional video/text campaign. Pre‑ and post‑intervention surveys measured cognitive/emotional engagement, behavioral intention, and self‑reported health actions, while detailed cost logs enabled incremental cost‑effectiveness ratio (ICER) analyses. Results demonstrated that AR immersion significantly elevated presence (F(1,594)=152.07, p<.001) and time‑on‑task (F(1,594)=210.33, p<.001), which in turn produced larger and more durable increases in intention (η²=.14 for Arm×Time interaction) and actual behavior change (smoking reduction t(598)=20.84, p<.001; vaccination uptake χ²(1)=32.56, p<.001). Economic evaluation revealed that AR campaigns achieved lower ICERs (USD 29.50 per unit behavior change) compared to conventional media, with sensitivity analyses confirming robustness. Multi‑group moderation analyses confirmed stronger path coefficients and greater cost‑efficiency in the Saudi Arabia sample, underscoring the moderating role of technological readiness and cultural factors. These findings affirm AR's promise as a cost‐effective modality for immersive health promotion.
Keywords: augmented reality, Health Communication, cost‑effectiveness analysis, Behavioral Intention, cross‑national comparison, immersive media
Received: 09 Aug 2025; Accepted: 03 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Habes, Alzahrani, Alfawaz, Bdoor, Attar and Alhazmi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mohammed Habes, mohammad.habes@yu.edu.jo
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