Table 2.
Characteristics of the included studies
| Author and date | Country | Income level of country | Aim of the study | Study design | Study population | Study setting | Sample size | Duration of study |
| Research articles | ||||||||
| Ammann et al (2012)39 | Australia | High | To evaluate a website-delivered computer-tailored PA intervention, with a specific focus on differences in tailored advice acceptability, website usability, and PA change between three age groups. | Quantitative non-randomised design | Male and female | Community | 863 | 1 month |
| Bardus et al (2014)38 | UK | High | To investigate the reason for participating and not participating in an eHealth workplace PA intervention. | Qualitative study | Male and female | Workplace | 62 | Not specified |
| Carr et al (2013)48 | USA | High | The goals of these focus groups were to identify internet features rated as ‘useful for improving PA’. | RCT design | Male and female | Community | 53 | 6 months |
| Frank et al (2016)40 | USA | To determine if a telehealth coaching initiative is superior to a one-time nutrition and fitness education class regarding: (1) dietary contributions to bone health and (2) exercise contributions to bone health, assessed before and after deployment. | Prospective, longitudinal, cluster-RCT | Male and female | Workplace | 158 | 9 months | |
| Guertler et al (2015)41 | Australia | High | The aims of this study were to (1) examine the engagement with the freely available PA promotion programme 10 000 Steps, (2) examine how use of a smartphone app may be helpful in increasing engagement with the intervention and in decreasing non-usage attrition, and (3) identify sociodemographic and engagement-related determinants of non-usage attrition. | Retrospective randomised trial | Male and female | Community | 16 948 | 9 months |
| King et al (2016)44 | USA | High | This study provided an initial 8-week evaluation of three different customised PA-sedentary behaviour apps drawn from conceptually distinct motivational frames in comparison with a commercially available control app. | Controlled experimental design | Male and female | Community | 95 | 8 weeks |
| Kirwan et al (2012)45 | Australia | High | To measure the potential of a newly developed smartphone application to improve health behaviours in existing members of a website-delivered PA programme (10 000 Steps, Australia). | Two-arm matched case–control trial | Male and female | Community | 200 | 3 months |
| Lara et al (2016)37 | UK | High | We report a pilot RCT of a web-based platform (Living, Eating, Activity and Planning through retirement; LEAP) promoting healthy eating (based on an MD, PA and meaningful social roles. | Mixed method design | Male and female | Workplace | 70 | 8 weeks |
| Mackenzie et al (2015)36 | UK | High | To explore the acceptability and feasibility of a low-cost, co-produced, multimodal intervention to reduce workplace sitting. | Mixed method design | Male and female | Workplace | 26 | Over 4 weeks |
| Naimark et al (2015)20 | Israel | High | Our aim was to compare people receiving a new web-based app with people who got an introductory lecture alone on healthy lifestyle, weight change, nutritional knowledge and PA, and to identify predictors of success for maintaining a health. | RCT | Male and female | Workplace | 85 | 14 weeks |
| Schneider et al (2013)42 | The Netherlands | High | This study investigated the influence of content and timing of a single email prompt on re-use of an internet-delivered CT lifestyle programme. | RCT | Male and female | Workplace | 200 | 6 weeks |
| Schneider et al (2013)42 | The Netherlands | High | This study aimed to determine the effect of proactive dissemination strategy on reach of the internet-delivered CT intervention. | Intervention study | Male and female | Community | 5168 | 10 months |
| Tsai et al (2015)18 | Taiwan | High | This study aimed to evaluate health-promoting effects of an eHealth intervention among nurses compared with conventional handbook learning. | Randomised control | Female nurses | Workplace | 105 | 12 weeks |
| Review evidence articles | ||||||||
| Bardus et al (2015)49 | 36 countries in Asian, Australia and Oceania; Europe, North and South America |
High | To provide an up-to-date, comprehensive map of the literature discussing use of mobile phone and web 2.0 apps for influencing behaviours related to weight management (ie, diet, PA, weight control). | Review | All population group | Not specified | 457 articles | NA |
| Bert et al (2014)51 | Not specified | High | To describe use of smartphones by health professionals and patients in the field of health promotion. | Review | Not specified | Not specified | 21 articles | NA |
| Buhi et al (2013)52 | Europe, Asia South Korea, USA, New Zealand | High | To perform a systematic review of the literature concerning behavioural mobile health (mHealth) and summarise points related to heath topic, use of theory, audience, purpose, design, intervention components and principal results that can inform future health education applications. | Review | Not specified | Not specified | 34 articles | NA |
| Fanning et al (2012)27 | Not specified | Not specified | The aims of this review were to (1) examine the efficacy of mobile devices in the PA setting, (2) explore and discuss implementation of device features across studies and (3) make recommendations for future intervention development. | Review | Not specified | Not specified | 11articles | NA |
| Howarth et al (2018)47 | Not specified | Not specified | The aim of this systematic review was to assess the impact of pure digital health interventions in the workplace on health-related outcomes. | Review | Not specified | Not specified | 22 articles | NA |
| Hou et al (2014)53 | USA | High | This review examines internet interventions aiming to change health behaviours in the general population. | Review | Not specified | Not specified | 38 articles | NA |
| Kohl et al (2013)54 | Not specified | Not specified | The aim of this paper is to (1) review the current literature on online prevention aimed at lifestyle behaviours, and (2) identify research gaps regarding reach, effectiveness and use. | Review | Not specified | Not specified | 41 articles | NA |
| Laranjo et al. (2014)17 | UK, USA, Australia | High | Our aim was to evaluate use and effectiveness of interventions using SNSs to change health behaviours. | Review | Not specified | Not specified | 12 articles | NA |
| Lee et al (2018)56 | The objective of this study was to investigate the content and usefulness of mobile app programme for the general adult population. | Review | Not specified | Not specified | 12 articles | NA | ||
| Rogers et al (2017)55 | Not specified | Not specified | The aims of this study were to (1) discover the range of health-related topics that were addressed through internet-delivered interventions, (2) generate a list of current websites used in the trials which demonstrated a health benefit and (3) identify gaps in the research that may have hindered dissemination. | Review | Not specified | Not specified | 71 articles | NA |
| Stratton et al (2017)50 | Not specified | Not specified | The aim of this paper is to conduct the first comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the evidence for the effectiveness and examine the relative efficacy of different types of eHealth interventions for employees. | Review | Employee | Workplace | 23 articles | NA |
CT, computer-tailored; MD, Mediterranean diet; NA, not applicable; PA, physical activity; RCT, randomised controlled trial; SNSs, social networking sites.