Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Feb 14, 2025
Date Accepted: Aug 19, 2025
Effectiveness and Theoretical Foundations of mHealth apps for Physical Activity, Health Eating and Weight Loss: Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Obesity is a significant global public health concern. Primary prevention and health promotion to encourage positive health behaviour and health promotion address Obesity may be able to be delivered via mHealth, but evidence of apps improving health outcomes over sufficient timeframes to be clinically meaningful is limited. mHealth interventions for physical activity, healthy eating and weight loss typically prioritise intention as the primary driver of behaviour. This may limit their impact as intention does not consistently translate into behaviour.
Objective:
This review updates a previous systematic review on the effectiveness of mobile apps for health behaviour change while narrowing the scope to weight management interventions to enable a more focused analysis. Its primary objective is to investigate the effectiveness of mHealth apps in improving health behaviours with respect to physical activity and healthy eating, and to explore the inclusion of behavioural theories and behaviour change techniques and evidence for their effectiveness.
Methods:
This protocol follows the PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols) Checklist, and the review will be structured using the PRISMA 2020 statement. Nine databases (PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, APA PsychINFO, Cochrane Library, SportDiscus, SCOPUS, Web of Science and Science Direct) will be searched for studies reporting evaluation of the impact of mHealth intervention on weight loss, healthy eating or physical activity outcomes. EndNote 21 will be used for deduplication and initial screening, followed by manual title and abstract screening, and then full-text screening by two independent reviewers. Data regarding the studies, interventions, evaluation methods and outcomes will be extracted into a predetermined form. A meta-analysis will be conducted on eligible studies (reporting control group comparisons) to synthesise evidence of their effectiveness, and the remaining quantitative data will be descriptively analysed.
Results:
The review is expected to start in April 2025 and be submitted for publication by the end of 2025.
Conclusions:
This review will synthesise evidence on the theoretical basis underpinning mHealth interventions for enhancing physical activity, healthy eating and weight loss and generate new insights into how particular Behaviour Change Techniques can best support intended outcomes. This will help guide the development of more impactful mobile-based interventions to support healthy behaviours that are better able to reduce risk factors for chronic health conditions. Clinical Trial: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=602819
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