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Behavior change techniques in mobile health interventions promoting recovery from substances: A synthesis of reviews
Nithya P Gurumurthy1,2, Lex Hurley3, Brooke T Nezami4
1Gillings School of Global Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Objective:
This synthesis of reviews and meta-analyses delves into the landscape of behavior change techniques (BCTs) employed in digital interventions designed to help individuals abstain from or reduce consumption of substances (including alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs). This review considers the "black box" problem in mHealth programs by using Michie et al.'s BCT taxonomy to describe BCTs that have been used in intervention literature and to explore potential active ingredients that may contribute to intervention effectiveness.
Methods:
We synthesize findings from 49 systematic reviews and meta-analyses. While individual studies often express inconclusiveness for the effectiveness of specific BCTs, this review uncovers promising avenues for future research. Our analysis focuses on mobile health (mHealth) just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs), with a specific emphasis on substance use reduction.
Results:
Eleven BCTs were studied extensively in these reviews, including self-monitoring of behavior, feedback on behavior, goal setting, social support, prompts/cues, and behavior substitution. Our synthesis of evidence points to prompts/cues as particularly promising and highlights a handful of BCTs that demand further investigation, including self-monitoring, goal setting, and feedback on behavior.
Conclusions:
This review identifies specific limitations in each step of review formulation and provides nuanced suggestions to enhance the efficacy of future research endeavors.
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