What's the ‘Secret Sauce’?: A Systematic Review of the Characteristics of Effective Digital Health Behaviour Change Interventions for Children and Adolescents

Issue Addressed

Few previous reviews have identified the characteristics of effective digital health behaviour change interventions for children and/or adolescents. This systematic review aimed to identify and report the characteristics, including the theoretical bases and the incorporated behaviour change techniques (BCTs).

Methods

CINAHL Ultimate (EBSCO), MEDLINE (Ovid), PubMed, ProQuest, and Web of Science were searched to identify intervention studies published in international academic peer-reviewed journals between January 2002 and May 2024 inclusive. Only studies that used a randomised controlled trial (RCT) study design to evaluate interventions were eligible for inclusion in this review. Studies were reviewed independently by two researchers to assess the risk of bias and extract data.

Results

There were 17 study articles that met the eligibility criteria for inclusion. Twenty interventions were evaluated in the 17 articles. Ten interventions were considered to be effective and incorporated one or more of the following BCTs: (1) shaping knowledge, (2) goals and planning, (3) feedback and monitoring, (4) social support, and (5) reward. Eight effective interventions were based on one or more of the following behaviour change theories: (1) Social Cognitive Theory, (2) Theory of Planned Behaviour, (3) Transtheoretical Model–Stages of Change, (4) I-Change Model, and (5) Health Action Process Approach.

Conclusions

Effective interventions incorporated one or more BCTs and most were based on behaviour change theories.

So What?

Findings can inform the selection of appropriate behaviour change theories and techniques in the development of future interventions for children and/or adolescents.