The use of eHealth to promote physical activity in people with mental health conditions: a systematic review

Abstract

Background: Achieving adequate amounts of physical activity (PA) confers important physical and mental health benefits. Despite this, people with mental health conditions often do not meet recommended levels of PA. eHealth, the delivery of health information through internet and mobile technologies, is an emerging concept in healthcare which presents opportunities to improve PA. The aim of this systematic review is to describe the use of eHealth to increase or monitor PA levels in people with mental health conditions. Methods: Databases searched included OVID Medline, EMBASE, PsychInfo and Web of Science using a combination of key-words and medical subject headings. Articles were included if they described an eHealth technology designed to improve or monitor PA in people with mental health conditions. Two reviewers screened articles. Articles included in the qualitative synthesis were screened for risk of bias using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for experimental studies and Downs and Black Checklist for non-experimental studies. Results: Seven studies met the eligibility criteria. A variety of eHealth platforms designed to promote or monitor PA were described in these studies; web-based (n=4), web and mobile application (n=3) and e-mail-based (n=1), one study used both a web-based and mobile application. Three studies reported eHealth interventions significantly increased PA levels, however it is unclear if eHealth interventions are superior at promoting PA compared to conventional interventions. Four studies reported that higher levels of PA, measured using eHealth, were associated with better mental health profiles. Conclusion: eHealth interventions may be an innovative low-cost method to increase PA levels which may have knock-on effects on mental health outcomes. Although some of the included studies in this review demonstrated promising results, methodological restrictions and potential biases from using subjective measures of PA limit the interpretability of these results. Future research should evaluate this promising technology using well-designed trials.

The Effectiveness of Internet-Guided Self-help Interventions to Promote Physical Activity Among Individuals With Depression: Systematic Review

“…Less is known about whether IGSH PA interventions for people with depression are effective at (1) increasing PA engagement and (2) reducing depressive symptoms. To date, 2 reviews have investigated eHealth PA interventions for individuals with mental illnesses [ 50 , 51 ], and 1 review [ 52 ] specifically examined web-based interventions. However, these reviews investigated eHealth interventions for mental illness generally, rather than IGSH programs for depression specifically.…”

“…These are noteworthy distinctions, as the strongest research evidence of the benefits of PA-based treatments is for depression [ 16 ]; to our knowledge, no clinical guidelines exist for PA-based treatment for anxiety, schizophrenia, or other mental health conditions. In addition, the reviews included both experimental and observational studies [ 50 ]. Given the rapid pace of technological development and growing concerns of physical inactivity among people with depression, it is likely that this research field has expanded in recent years.…”