Mobile apps, websites and SMS-based initiatives have a positive impact on users’ health and wellbeing, says new research.
Digital health interventions are effective at motivating users to adopt and sustain a healthier lifestyle, say experts.
Conducting a systematic umbrella review of 47 studies with a total of 206,873 participants, researchers found tools such as apps, websites and text messages promoting healthy behaviours had a profound effect on participants’ health and wellbeing by increasing rates of physical activity, improving eating habits and enhancing sleep quality.
“Our study found that digital and mobile health interventions can have a positive effect on people’s health and wellbeing, not only helping them to increase their physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour, but also improving their diet and quality of sleep,” said lead researcher Dr Ben Singh, a research fellow in allied health and human performance at the University of South Australia.
“Given the wide accessibility and popularity of health apps, their capability to tailor information and deliver timely reminders and prompts, and scalability to diverse populations, they could be a very effective intervention to promote better health.
“Making positive changes to your health and wellbeing can be a challenge – it’s always easier to add kilos to your waistline, than it is to reduce them – but by incorporating digital tools into your everyday life, you’re more likely to achieve positive outcomes.”
Digital health tools were found to help participants walk an additional 1329 more steps per day and engage in an extra 55 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per week on average, with overall physical activity increasing by 45 minutes per week as a result of the interventions.
Participants who accessed the digital health interventions consumed 200% more fruits and vegetables and 103 fewer calories per day on average while also achieving a mean weight loss of 1.9 kilograms over twelve weeks, the systematic review showed.
The findings also indicated broad improvements in sleep quality, less severe insomnia and an average reduction in sedentary behaviour of 7 hours per week among those using the digital interventions.
Conducting subgroup analyses of the 47 studies to identify differences across age groups, health behaviours, health populations and technology types, researchers found the results remained consistent, leading them to conclude digital health tools represented “scalable and accessible approaches” to encouraging healthier behaviour that could effectively underpin public health campaigns.
According to Dr Singh, rising rates of preventable chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes nationwide were contributing to the growing need for effective ways to promote healthy behaviour, a gap that digital health apps could fill.
Of the 47 studies included in the systematic review, 14 focused on mobile or online tools designed to increase physical activity, 4 targeted sleep patterns and 3 focused on diet, with the majority (26) addressing a combination of behaviours.
The findings are available in full via npj Digital Medicine.