Strengths and weaknesses of health behavior change programs on the internet

Full reviews were conducted on 37 public websites on health behavior change for disease prevention and management. All had at least four of five of the `5A's for effective health behavior change treatment on the Internet' (advise, assess, assist, anticipatory guidance and arrange follow-up) that are assumed to be minimum criteria for a program to have the potential for producing behavior change. The strength of these 37 programs included: rationales provided for assessments; privacy and confidentiality protections; some form of feedback provided; and some form of interactivity. The weaknesses included: few were theory driven; few had individualized tailoring; few had empirically based tailoring; and few were evidence based or reported subsequent plans for evaluation.