Accepted for/Published in: Interactive Journal of Medical Research
Date Submitted: Feb 6, 2025
Date Accepted: Jun 23, 2025
Digital interventions for improving body dissatisfaction in children and emerging adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Body image dissatisfaction (BID) is a condition where individuals are dissatisfied with their own body’s physical appearance. BID has become a global issue, especially among children and adolescents. A growing number of digital interventions have been developed to address BID in children and adolescents.
Objective:
This review aimed to explore the effectiveness of digital interventions in improving body image-related outcomes among children and adolescents.
Methods:
From inception to April 24, 2024, a literature search was performed across seven databases, PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE, EBSCO, Cochrane Library, and the Chinese databases CNKI and Wan Fang. This systematic review was reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) checklist.
Results:
Twenty randomized controlled trials (RCTs) met the inclusion criteria. Digital interventions included webpages, mobile applications, online videos, internet games, chatbots, podcasts, and social media.
Conclusions:
This meta-analysis revealed that digital interventions could significantly improve body satisfaction or dissatisfaction, physical appearance comparison, thin-ideal internalization, self-esteem, self-compassion, and depression with small to medium effect size. Digital interventions appear to be promising to improve BID among children and adolescents. However, the results should be interpreted cautiously due to substantial heterogeneity and possible publication bias. Clinical Trial: The protocol was prospectively registered with PROSPERO (Registration number: CRD42024567594).
Citation
