Table 2.

Characteristics of the articles included in the review

Author/year/ reference	Country	Design	Objective	Setting	Nudging strategies	Nudging medium	Statistically significant positive results?
Birnbach et al. 2013 [29]	USA	RCT (simulated environment)	Improve hand hygiene compliance	Novice health care providers from collaborating medical school	Environmental cueing/priming	Physical environment	Yes
Bourdeaux et al. 2016 [30]	England	Prospective controlled pre-post study (time series analysis)	Increase use of low TVe ventilation in ICU	Tertiary care ICU unit	Defaults/pre-orders; Alerts/reminders	Medical device/machine; Electronic dashboard	Yes
Lewis et al. 2019 [31]	England	Prospective controlled pre-post study (time series analysis)	Reduce unnecessary CT usage	2 hospitals	Environmental cueing/priming	Test results	Yes
Langley et al. 2018 [32]	England	Retrospective pre-post study (time series analysis)	Evaluate whether providing information on the cost of drugs to clinicians would modify total expenditure	Acute medical hospital	Information transparency	EHR	No
Probst et al. 2013 [33]	USA	Randomized vignette-based study	Study the effect of opt-in, opt-out, and recommended order sets on laboratory orders	Physicians at a collaborating hospital	Defaults/pre-orders	EHR	Yes
Tannenbaum et al. 2014 [34]	USA	Randomized vignette-based study	Improve guideline concordance for acute respiratory infection treatment	GPs in the greater Chicago area	Defaults/pre-orders	EHR	Yes
Soon et al. 2018 [35]	Australia	Randomized vignette-based study	Improve guideline concordance for lower back pain treatment	GPs across Australia	Defaults/pre-orders	EHR	Yes
Meeker et al. 2014 [36]	USA	RCT	Increase compliance with antibiotic prescription guidelines	5 primary practice clinics	Environmental cueing/priming	Physical environment	Yes
Yadav et al. 2019 [37]	USA	RCT	Improve guideline concordance for acute respiratory infection treatment	5 Emergency Departments and 4 Urgent Care Centers	Peer comparison; Environmental cueing/priming,	Physical environment, Email	Yes
Caris et al. 2018 [38]	The Netherlands	Prospective pre-post study	Improve hand hygiene compliance	Two general medicine hospital wards	Environmental cueing/priming	Physical environment	Yes
King et al. 2016 [39]	USA	RCT	Improve hand hygiene compliance	Surgical ICU unit	Environmental cueing/priming	Physical environment	Yes
Orloski et al. 2019 [40]	USA	Prospective controlled pre-post study	Improve patient experience by having providers sit down during examination	Two emergency departments	Environmental cueing/priming	Physical environment	Yes
Meeker et al. 2016 [41]	USA	RCT	Improve guideline concordance for acute respiratory infection treatment	47 primary care practices	Peer comparison; Accountable justification; Suggested alternatives	EHR; Email	Yes
O’Reilly-Shah et al. 2018 [42]	USA	Prospective pre-post study with cross-over	Improve compliance with lung-protective ventilation strategies during general anaesthesia	2 academic hospitals, 2 non-academic hospitals and 2 academic surgery centres	Defaults/pre-orders; Feedback	Medical device/machine; Email	Yes
Kwok et al. 2016 [43]	Australia	Prospective pre-post study	Improve hand hygiene compliance	2 hospital wards (medical and surgical)	Feedback; Goal setting,	Email; Routine activities	No
Patel et al. 2018 [44]	USA	RCT	Increase guideline-concordant statin prescriptions	32 primary care clinics	Alerts/reminders; Active choice; Peer comparison	Email, Electronic dashboard	Yes
Lehmann et al. 2016 [45]	The Netherlands	RCT	Improve influenza vaccination rates of staff	Tertiary care center	Defaults/pre-orders	Email	No
Schmidtke et al. 2019 [46]	England	RCT	Improve influenza vaccination rates of staff	Hospital	Alerts/reminders	Letter	No
Harewood et al. 2011 [47]	Ireland	RCT	Evaluate effect of pre-filling sedation syringes on colonoscopy sedation practices	Endoscopy specialist care	Defaults/pre-orders	Routine activities	Yes
Shakespeare et al. 2018 [48]	Australia	Prospective pre-post study	Improve administration of analgesic medications after Caesarean section	Tertiary teaching hospital	Education; Defaults/pre-orders	Routine activities	Yes
Arora et al. 2019 [49]	USA	Prospective pre-post study	Improve inpatient sleep	2 general medicine hospital wards	Active choice; Environmental cueing/priming; Education	EHR; Physical environment; Routine activities	Yes
Kim et al. 2018 [50]	USA	Retrospective controlled study	Increase influenza vaccination rates and remove any variation due to appointment time	11 primary care clinics	Active choice	EHR	Yes
Patel et al. 2017 [51]	USA	Retrospective controlled pre-post study	Increase influenza vaccination rates	3 primary care clinics	Active choice	EHR	Yes
Malhotra et al. 2016 [52]	USA	Retrospective pre-post study	Increase the prescription of generic medication	Multispeciality practice	Defaults/pre-orders	EHR	Yes
Monsen et al. 2019 [53]	USA	RCT	Reduce prescription of high-cost (low-value) medication	58 primary care and 152 specialty care clinics	Active choice	EHR	Yes
Sedrak et al. 2017 [54]	USA	RCT	Reduce unecessary inpatient tests	3 hospitals	Information transparency	EHR	No
Sharma et al. 2019 [55]	USA	RCT	Reduce imaging tests for patient undergoing palliative radiotherapy	5 radiation oncology practices	Defaults/pre-orders	EHR	Yes
Bourdeaux et al. 2013 [56]	England	Retrospective pre-post study	Increase prescription of chlorhexidine mouthwash and reduce the prescription of hydroxyethylstarch to patients in ICU	Tertiary care ICU unit	Defaults/pre-orders	EHR	Yes
Panattoni et al. 2018 [57]	USA	Retrospective pre-post study	Increase compliance with diabetes preventive care (use of routine glycated hemoglobin)	Ambulatory healthcare system	Alerts/reminders; Defaults/pre-orders	EHR	Yes
Holt et al. 2010 [58]	England	RCT	Improve clinical outcomes and data quality related to cardio-vascular disease	19 primary care clinics	Alerts/reminders	EHR	No