The Effectiveness of Interactivity in Improving Mediating Variables, Behaviors and Outcomes of Web-Based Health Interventions: A Meta-Analytic Review

Effective Behavior Change Techniques in Digital Health Interventions for the Prevention or Management of Noncommunicable Diseases: An Umbrella Review

“…We identified 12 reviews on multiple lifestyle behaviors ( n > 137,943), of which five were focused on NCD prevention [ 55–59 ], six were on both prevention and management of NCDs [ 60–65 ], and one was related to health in general [ 66 ]. Two reviews were of moderate quality [ 60 , 61 ], four were low quality [ 55 , 57 , 62 , 63 ] and six were of critically low quality [ 56 , 58 , 59 , 64–66 ]. Evidence from a recent meta-analysis of RCTs on eHealth lifestyle behavior interventions targeting CVD risk reduction in men found eHealth intervention to be more effective than control or comparison conditions for body mass index, body weight, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure [ 57 ].…”

“…Evidence from a recent meta-analysis of RCTs on eHealth lifestyle behavior interventions targeting CVD risk reduction in men found eHealth intervention to be more effective than control or comparison conditions for body mass index, body weight, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure [ 57 ]. Yang et al [ 56 ] reported small but significant effects of eHealth interventions on health mediating variables ( d = 0.29; 95% CI 0.20–0.38; p < .001; k = 49), health behaviors ( d = 0.28; 95% CI 0.18–0.38; p < .001; k = 52), and health outcomes ( d = 0.32; 95% CI 0.21–0.42; p < .001; k = 40) compared with control. Two reviews reported small ( d = 0.16; 95% CI 0.09–0.23; k = 85) [ 66 ] to moderate ( d = 0.39 ± 0.37) [ 59 ] average effect sizes for eHealth interventions over comparison conditions.…”

“…Overall, there was good evidence to suggest that reducing negative emotions, human coaching, and tailoring or personalization are effective strategies to improve health behaviors via DHIs ( Table 1 ). In moderator analyses, Yang et al [ 56 ] reported that tailoring or personalization of content based on users’ input and access to a mentor or coach were found to increase intervention effectiveness compared with interventions without these components, while Newby et al [ 55 ] found that the BCT “information about social and environmental consequences” led to a small negative effect on self-efficacy. Webb et al [ 66 ] reported significant moderate effects on health behaviors for interventions that provided BCTs “reduce negative emotions” (stress management) and general communication skills training, and small effects for demonstration of the behavior, problem solving, social comparison, goal setting (behavior), action planning, and feedback on behavior.…”