Promoting Behavioral Change in Mobile Health Interventions for Older Adults: A Scoping Review.
Oleg Zaslavsky, Inthira Roopsawang, Annie T Chen
PMID 31697395WHAT IT FOUND
Mobile health interventions for adults 60 and older generally increased physical activity, medication adherence, and disease self-management.
Feedback, monitoring, and goal-setting were the most common techniques used to drive these changes.
Key findings
01Of the 20 included studies, 11 targeted physical activity, 8 targeted disease and medication management, and 1 targeted diet.
02Most studies reported increases in the targeted behaviors, with an average 12 min/day increase in moderate to vigorous physical activity and a 9% average difference in medication adherence between intervention and control arms.
03The most commonly used behavioral change techniques were feedback and monitoring (12 studies), associations (8 studies), goals and planning (6 studies), and social support (5 studies).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The review only included studies published in English from developed countries, limiting generalizability to other contexts. The sample size of the included studies was small (n=20), and the studies themselves had varying designs and populations. The review used inclusive definitions for coding behavioral change techniques and theories, which may have led to an overly optimistic estimate of their use. The review did not assess the quality of the individual studies or the effect of age-related factors like cognition on intervention design.
Declared interests
The research was supported by the National Institute on Aging (N.I.H., Extramural). The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the reported increases in physical activity or medication adherence as proof that specific mobile apps are superior to standard care. This is a scoping review of heterogeneous studies with varying designs and outcomes, not a meta-analysis of efficacy, and it does not account for potential biases in the original studies.