Study Design
We conducted a systematic review to assess the type and quality of the studies evaluating the effects of electronic media–based interventions on health and safety behavior change in youth aged 18 years or younger. We identified studies from searches in MEDLINE (1950 through September 2010) and PsycINFO (1967 through September 2010).
What We Found
Of the 19 studies included in the present review, 17 reported a statistically significant change in health or safety behavior. The focus was interventions related to physical activity and/or nutrition in 7 studies, on asthma in 6, safety behaviors in 3, sexual risk behaviors in 2, and diabetes mellitus in 1. Seventeen studies reported at least 1 statistically significant effect on behavior change outcomes, including an increase in fruit, juice, or vegetable consumption; an in- crease in physical activity; improved asthma self- management; acquisition of street and fire safety skills; and sexual abstinence.
Our review revealed that electronic media interventions have been developed and examined for an array of conditions that are potentially highly relevant and important to the care of youth. These results should be interpreted with caution, however, given that the quality assessment found most of these studies to be of poor quality. Of the 5 studies of excellent quality, 4 of them found statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups. Although our review provides support for using electronic media to change behavior in youth, our quality assessments also indicate that there have been few scientifically rigorous evaluations of such interventions in this age group.