Home > What makes online substance-use interventions engaging? A systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Milward, Joanna and Drummond, Colin and Fincham-Campbell, Stephanie and Deluca, Paolo (2018) What makes online substance-use interventions engaging? A systematic review and narrative synthesis. Digital Health, 4, p. 2055207617743354. doi: 10.1177/2055207617743354..

External website: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/205520761...

Background: Online substance-use interventions are effective in producing reductions in harmful-use. However, low user engagement rates with online interventions reduces overall effectiveness of interventions. Identifying optimal strategies with which to engage users with online substance-use interventions may improve usage rates and subsequent effectiveness.

Objectives: (1) To identify the most prevalent engagement promoting strategies utilised to increase use of online substance-use interventions. (2) To determine whether the identified engagement promoting strategies increased said use of online substance-use interventions.

Review methods: The reviewed followed Cochrane methodology. Databases were searched for online substance-use interventions and engagement promoting strategies limited by study type (randomised controlled trial). Due to heterogeneity between engagement promoting strategies and engagement outcomes, meta-analytic techniques were not possible. Narrative synthesis methods were used.

Results: Fifteen studies were included. Five different engagement promoting strategies were identified: (1) tailoring; (2) delivery strategies; (3) incentives; (4) reminders; (5) social support. The most frequently reported engagement promoting strategies was tailoring (47% of studies), followed by reminders and social support (40% of studies) and delivery strategies (33% of studies). The narrative synthesis demonstrated that tailoring, multimedia delivery of content and reminders are potential techniques for promoting engagement. The evidence for social support was inconclusive and negative for incentives.

Conclusions: This review was the first to examine engagement promoting strategies in solely online substance-use interventions. Three strategies were identified that may be integral in promoting engagement with online substance-use interventions. However, the small number of eligible extracted studies, inconsistent reporting of engagement outcomes and diversity of engagement features prevent firmer conclusions. More high-quality trials examining engagement are required.


Repository Staff Only: item control page