Strategies to Facilitate Exposure to Internet-Delivered Health Behavior Change Interventions Aimed at Adolescents or Young Adults: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The Internet is considered to be a promising delivery channel of interventions aimed at promoting healthful behaviors, especially for adolescents and young adults. Exposure to these interventions, however, is generally low. A more extensive exploration of methods, strategies, and their effectiveness with regard to facilitating exposure is therefore timely, because this knowledge is crucial to improve the use of such interventions and, subsequently, to increase behavioral change. Therefore, a systematic review of the literature was conducted, resulting in 838 studies based on title selection, of which 26 studies met the eligibility criteria. The systematic review resulted in an overview of methods and strategies that have been used to facilitate exposure. Patterns of effective strategies could be observed, such as the combination of tailored communication and the use of reminders and incentives. Nevertheless, exposure-specific theories need to be developed and objective exposure measures should be tracked and reported in future studies.