Design Principles in mHealth Interventions for Sustainable Health Behavior Changes: Protocol for a Systematic Review.

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Behavioral Science
• Public Health Interventions

Background:

• Mobile health (mHealth) is increasingly used for disease prevention and self-management.
• mHealth tools offer personalized, real-time recommendations via dialogue systems.
• Systematic evaluation of mHealth design principles is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• Identify best practices for mHealth intervention design.
• Focus on personalization, real-time functions, and deliverable resources.
• Target interventions for diet, physical activity, and sedentary behavior.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search (MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science) since 2010.
• Keywords combine mHealth, interventions, chronic disease, self-management, diet, physical activity, sedentary behavior, personalization, and real-time functions.
• Narrative synthesis of findings; Risk of Bias 2 tool for quality assessment.

Main Results:

• Preliminary search identified reviews on mHealth efficacy and methodologies.
• Existing reviews lack synthesis on unique mHealth intervention design features.
• No systematic evaluations of design principles for personalized, real-time mHealth interventions found.

Conclusions:

• Findings will inform best practices for mHealth tool design.
• Aims to support sustainable behavior change through optimized mHealth interventions.