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Online Health Interventions Effective for Behavior Change, at Low Cost

Increasing patient motivation may be key to success

Online interventions may have the power to change the behaviors of your patients, at little cost, according to a study published recently in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Over the last several years, the use of the Internet for social marketing has grown exponentially. Research indicates that online interventions can help motivate people to engage in healthy behaviors such as stopping smoking, reducing binge drinking, and managing weight. Many of these programs are tailored to an individual, however, which requires much time and extensive resources. More recently, as interactivity has improved and more people are turning to the Internet in general (there are currently more than 1.5 billion users), and especially for health information, the opportunity for larger-scale, automated campaigns has emerged. In fact, research suggests that interactive capabilities may make online communication more effective than traditional approaches.

The authors of the current study thus sought to investigate how various online interventions influenced the behaviors of participants. They performed a literature review of five bibliographic databases, covering 1999 through 2008. In the end, 29 studies with 30 interventions were included in the meta-analysis.

Overall, online interventions had the largest impact, followed by lower-tech online interventions. There were no significant differences found between online interventions and sophisticated print interventions, but online had larger reach and lower cost. Interventions generally had more of an impact with younger audiences and women. Those who adhered to study guidelines benefited more. Shorter interventions were more effective than longer ones; impact increased from one to four months, but then declined afterward.

Patient motivation appeared to be the most important predictor of intervention success. Addressing the two main dimensions of motivation, goal commitment and self-efficacy, is therefore essential, according to the authors. Tailored support to those who lack a sense of ability or self-efficacy is also advised. The authors conclude that the solution may be: “fewer public health campaigns that just disseminate warnings or advice and more campaigns that offer online tailored support in the form of digital therapists that help citizens help themselves.“

Source: Cugelman B, Thelwall M, Dawes P. 2011. Online interventions for social marketing health behavior change campaigns: a meta-analysis of psychological architectures and adherence factors. Journal of Medical Internet Research 13(1):e17.