Strengths and Weaknesses of Health Behavior Change Programs on the Internet

Abstract

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.

A Tailored Web-Based Intervention to Promote Women's Perceptions of and Intentions for Mammography

“…However, Web-based education is typically neither tailored to individual needs nor theoretically driven (Evers, Prochaska, Prochaska, Cummins, & Velicer, 2003;Lauver et al, 2002). Currently, available Webbased interventions are more likely provide information in ''one size fits all'' portions, similar to a ''brochure'' format (Lauver et al, 2002).…”

Assess the Impact of an Online Tobacco Prevention Training Program on Teachers and Their Students

“…Online programs provide the best opportunity to achieve such quality and audiences including behavior changes across various health issues (Christensen, Griffiths, & Jorm, 2004;Evers, Prochaska, Prochaska, Driskell, Cummins, & Velicer, 2003;Ritterband, GonderFrederick, Cox, Clifton, West, & Borowitz, 2003). Tobacco control is among the most widely studied and successful online programs reported (Walters, Wright, & Shegog, 2006).…”

Personalized nutrition communication through ICT application: how to overcome the gap between potential effectiveness and reality

“…Currently, many Internet sites offer more or less individual tailored nutrition advice. Few web-based interventions include information of the ineffectiveness in terms of nutrition behaviour change (Bensley & Lewis, 2002;Evers et al, 2003). Their usefulness for growing burdens of disease due to obesity, diabetes cardiovascular and malignant diseases is not clear.…”