Dataset Information

MHealth Interventions to Reduce Physical Inactivity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Children and adolescents increasingly do not meet physical activity (PA) recommendations. Hence, insufficient PA (IPA) and sedentary behavior (SB) among children and adolescents are relevant behavior change domains for using individualized mobile health (mHealth) interventions.

Objective

This review and meta-analysis investigated the effectiveness of mHealth interventions on IPA and SB, with a special focus on the age and level of individualization.

Methods

PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, SPORTDiscus, and Cochrane Library were searched for randomized controlled trials published between January 2000 and March 2021. mHealth interventions for primary prevention in children and adolescents addressing behavior change related to IPA and SB were included. Included studies were compared for content characteristics and methodological quality and summarized narratively. In addition, a meta-analysis with a subsequent exploratory meta-regression examining the moderating effects of age and individualization on overall effectiveness was performed.

Results

On the basis of the inclusion criteria, 1.3% (11/828) of the preliminary identified studies were included in the qualitative synthesis, and 1.2% (10/828) were included in the meta-analysis. Trials included a total of 1515 participants (mean age (11.69, SD 0.788 years; 65% male and 35% female) self-reported (3/11, 27%) or device-measured (8/11, 73%) health data on the duration of SB and IPA for an average of 9.3 (SD 5.6) weeks. Studies with high levels of individualization significantly decreased insufficient PA levels (Cohen d=0.33; 95% CI 0.08-0.58; Z=2.55; P=.01), whereas those with low levels of individualization (Cohen d=-0.06; 95% CI -0.32 to 0.20; Z=0.48; P=.63) or targeting SB (Cohen d=-0.11; 95% CI -0.01 to 0.23; Z=1.73; P=.08) indicated no overall significant effect. The heterogeneity of the studies was moderate to low, and significant subgroup differences were found between trials with high and low levels of individualization (χ²₁=4.0; P=.04; I²=75.2%). Age as a moderator variable showed a small effect; however, the results were not significant, which might have been because of being underpowered.

Conclusions

Evidence suggests that mHealth interventions for children and adolescents can foster moderate reductions in IPA but not SB. Moreover, individualized mHealth interventions to reduce IPA seem to be more effective for adolescents than for children. Although, to date, only a few mHealth studies have addressed inactive and sedentary young people, and their quality of evidence is moderate, these findings indicate the relevance of individualization on the one hand and the difficulties in reducing SB using mHealth interventions on the other.

Trial registration

PROSPERO CRD42020209417; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=209417.

SUBMITTER: Baumann H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9133983 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Electronic health (eHealth) and mobile health (mHealth) approaches to address low physical activity levels, sedentary behavior, and unhealthy diets have received significant research attention. However, attempts to systematically map the entirety of the research field are lacking. This gap can be filled with a bibliometric study, where publication-specific data such as citations, journals, authors, and keywords are used to provide a systematic overview of a specific field. Such analyses will help researchers better position their work. OBJECTIVE:The objective of this review was to use bibliometric data to provide an overview of the eHealth and mHealth research field related to physical activity, sedentary behavior, and diet. METHODS:The Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection was searched to retrieve all existing and highly cited (as defined by WoS) physical activity, sedentary behavior, and diet related eHealth and mHealth research papers published in English between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2016. Retrieved titles were screened for eligibility, using the abstract and full-text where needed. We described publication trends over time, which included journals, authors, and countries of eligible papers, as well as their keywords and subject categories. Citations of eligible papers were compared with those expected based on published data. Additionally, we described highly-cited papers of the field (ie, top ranked 1%). RESULTS:The search identified 4805 hits, of which 1712 (including 42 highly-cited papers) were included in the analyses. Publication output increased on an average of 26% per year since 2000, with 49.00% (839/1712) of papers being published between 2014 and 2016. Overall and throughout the years, eHealth and mHealth papers related to physical activity, sedentary behavior, and diet received more citations than expected compared with papers in the same WoS subject categories. The Journal of Medical Internet Research published most papers in the field (9.58%, 164/1712). Most papers originated from high-income countries (96.90%, 1659/1717), in particular the United States (48.83%, 836/1712). Most papers were trials and studied physical activity. Beginning in 2013, research on Generation 2 technologies (eg, smartphones, wearables) sharply increased, while research on Generation 1 (eg, text messages) technologies increased at a reduced pace. Reviews accounted for 20 of the 42 highly-cited papers (n=19 systematic reviews). Social media, smartphone apps, and wearable activity trackers used to encourage physical activity, less sedentary behavior, and/or healthy eating were the focus of 14 highly-cited papers. CONCLUSIONS:This study highlighted the rapid growth of the eHealth and mHealth physical activity, sedentary behavior, and diet research field, emphasized the sizeable contribution of research from high-income countries, and pointed to the increased research interest in Generation 2 technologies. It is expected that the field will grow and diversify further and that reviews and research on most recent technologies will continue to strongly impact the field.

Project description:BackgroundTraditional psychological theories are inadequate to fully leverage the potential of smartphones and improve the effectiveness of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) change interventions. Future interventions need to consider dynamic models taken from other disciplines, such as engineering (eg, control systems). The extent to which such dynamic models have been incorporated in the development of interventions for PA and SB remains unclear.ObjectiveThis review aims to quantify the number of studies that have used dynamic models to develop smartphone-based interventions to promote PA and reduce SB, describe their features, and evaluate their effectiveness where possible.MethodsDatabases including PubMed, PsycINFO, IEEE Xplore, Cochrane, and Scopus were searched from inception to May 15, 2019, using terms related to mobile health, dynamic models, SB, and PA. The included studies involved the following: PA or SB interventions involving human adults; either developed or evaluated integrated psychological theory with dynamic theories; used smartphones for the intervention delivery; the interventions were adaptive or just-in-time adaptive; included randomized controlled trials (RCTs), pilot RCTs, quasi-experimental, and pre-post study designs; and were published from 2000 onward. Outcomes included general characteristics, dynamic models, theory or construct integration, and measured SB and PA behaviors. Data were synthesized narratively. There was limited scope for meta-analysis because of the variability in the study results.ResultsA total of 1087 publications were screened, with 11 publications describing 8 studies included in the review. All studies targeted PA; 4 also included SB. Social cognitive theory was the major psychological theory upon which the studies were based. Behavioral intervention technology, control systems, computational agent model, exploit-explore strategy, behavioral analytic algorithm, and dynamic decision network were the dynamic models used in the included studies. The effectiveness of quasi-experimental studies involved reduced SB (1 study; P=.08), increased light PA (1 study; P=.002), walking steps (2 studies; P=.06 and P<.001), walking time (1 study; P=.02), moderate-to-vigorous PA (2 studies; P=.08 and P=.81), and nonwalking exercise time (1 study; P=.31). RCT studies showed increased walking steps (1 study; P=.003) and walking time (1 study; P=.06). To measure activity, 5 studies used built-in smartphone sensors (ie, accelerometers), 3 of which used the phone's GPS, and 3 studies used wearable activity trackers.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first systematic review to report on smartphone-based studies to reduce SB and promote PA with a focus on integrated dynamic models. These findings highlight the scarcity of dynamic model-based smartphone studies to reduce SB or promote PA. The limited number of studies that incorporate these models shows promising findings. Future research is required to assess the effectiveness of dynamic models in promoting PA and reducing SB.Trial registrationInternational Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) CRD42020139350; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=139350.

Project description:Diet, physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior are important, yet modifiable, determinants of obesity. Recent research into the clustering of these behaviors suggests that children and adolescents have multiple obesogenic risk factors. This paper reviews studies using empirical, data-driven methodologies, such as cluster analysis (CA) and latent class analysis (LCA), to identify clustering patterns of diet, PA and sedentary behavior among children or adolescents and their associations with socio-demographic indicators, and overweight and obesity. A literature search of electronic databases was undertaken to identify studies which have used data-driven methodologies to investigate the clustering of diet, PA and sedentary behavior among children and adolescents aged 5-18 years old. Eighteen studies (62% of potential studies) were identified that met the inclusion criteria, of which eight examined the clustering of PA and sedentary behavior and eight examined diet, PA and sedentary behavior. Studies were mostly cross-sectional and conducted in older children and adolescents (? 9 years). Findings from the review suggest that obesogenic cluster patterns are complex with a mixed PA/sedentary behavior cluster observed most frequently, but healthy and unhealthy patterning of all three behaviors was also reported. Cluster membership was found to differ according to age, gender and socio-economic status (SES). The tendency for older children/adolescents, particularly females, to comprise clusters defined by low PA was the most robust finding. Findings to support an association between obesogenic cluster patterns and overweight and obesity were inconclusive, with longitudinal research in this area limited. Diet, PA and sedentary behavior cluster together in complex ways that are not well understood. Further research, particularly in younger children, is needed to understand how cluster membership differs according to socio-demographic profile. Longitudinal research is also essential to establish how different cluster patterns track over time and their influence on the development of overweight and obesity.

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