Table 2.

Summary of review interventions, comparators, outcomes, and conclusion regarding intervention effectiveness.

Author (year)	mHealtha or eHealth intervention	Comparator or control	Key outcomes	Effectiveness of intervention
Cooper et al (2018) [21]	Wearable motion sensing technology interventions (accelerometer or pedometer) designed to increase PAb; duration range ≥6 weeks, ≤52 weeks	Usual care or standard care, waitlist control, or other active comparator focused on enhancing PA (eg, educational or behavioral interventions)	Change in PA behavior (minutes walking per day, steps per day, proportion of participants at activity goal)	Statistically significant effect of using accelerometers (SMDc=0.43 [95% CI 0.19 to 0.68, I2=1.6%d]), but not pedometers (SMD=0.17 [95% CI −0.08 to 0.43, I2=37.7%]) for increasing PA levels
Jonkman et al (2018)e [22]	Computer, tablet, smartphone, or smartwatch technology to promote PA or reduce sedentary behavior; duration range ≥4 weeks, ≤6 months	Usual practice, waitlist control, or other active comparator (eg, pedometer, blinded activity tracking)	Objective assessment of the amount of PA (eg, daily step counts, minutes spent on PA)	Positive short-term effect of increased PA (ie, right after administering the intervention), but lacking evidence for long-term effects
Larsen et al (2019) [23]	Any PAMf-based intervention (ie, accelerometer or pedometer) where the participants of the intervention group received any kind of feedback on their PA level measured by PAMs; duration range ≥4 weeks, ≤52 weeks	No feedback on PA level is given from the PAMs	PA (steps per day) as primary outcome; secondary outcomes included: MVPAg, sedentary time, physical capacity, HRQoLh	Statistically significant effect on PA favoring the intervention (SMD=0.54 [95% CI 0.34 to 0.73, I2=79.2%]); statistically significant effect on MVPA favoring the intervention (SMD=0.34 [95% CI 0.15 to 0.52, I2 = 65.8%]); inconclusive results for effects on sedentary time; no effect on physical capacity, BMI, or HRQoL
Muellmann et al (2018) [24]	The main intervention component delivered via computer (ie, website, PDA, virtual advisor), phone, or text messaging; duration range ≥4 weeks, ≤24 months	Non-eHealth intervention (eg, paper-pencil intervention without eHealth component, face-to-face consultation such as prescription of PA by a physician, or exercise in groups or with a personal trainer) or no intervention	PA assessed using objective measures (eg, pedometer, accelerometer), subjective measures (eg, PA diary, questionnaires), or a combination of objective and subjective methods	Overall, the 9 studies that used web-based interventions appear to have beneficial effects on increasing PA compared to various comparators (no intervention or paper-based interventions) in the short-term (1-6 months) with small effect sizes in the range of 0.20-0.31.
Yerrakalva et al (2019) [25]	mHealth app intervention delivered via smartphones or tablet computers; in 5 of 6 studies, the app synced with a wearable device (pedometers or wearable smart device); duration range ≥3 months, ≤6 months	Modified dose of intervention (modified volume of intervention or modified version of same app), different app, non-app intervention, or no intervention	PA (active minutes per day; steps per day), physical fitness (maximal oxygen uptake, 6-minute timed walk, gait speed), and sedentary time (% sedentary time per day, sitting time per day)	Interventions may be associated with increased PA (pooled mean difference 506 steps/day [95% CI −80 to 1092, I2=80.5%]), decreased sedentary time (SMD=−0.49 [95% CI −1.02 to 0.03, I2=0%]), and increased fitness (SMD=0.31 [95% CI −0.09 to 0.70, I2=0%]) in trials ≤3 months and with increased PA (753 steps/day) in trials ≥6 months. Results for all individual outcomes revealed trends in the same direction, but all results were inconclusive as the CIs included zero.

^amHealth: mobile health.

^bPA: physical activity.

^cSMD: standardized mean difference.

^dMeasure of heterogeneity.

^eExcluded from this overview based on AMSTAR assessment.

^fPAM: physical activity monitor.

^gMVPA: moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

^hHRQoL: health-related quality of life.