NorthPoint Domain

Support, Outreach, and Fresh Content Will Improve Exposure to Your Interventions

These characteristics resulted in more logins and longer website visits

Although the Internet can help you reach large numbers of patients with tailored interventions, research shows that many patients leave the intervention before completing it, meaning they are not optimally exposed to the content. Growing evidence suggests that patients need to visit an intervention site repeatedly for it to help them make lasting changes. A study published recently in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found that the key to optimizing patient exposure to interventions may be peer support, counselor support, email/phone contact with visitors, and frequent updates from the intervention website.

In reviewing the published evidence regarding Internet interventions, the authors of the current study found that improving patient exposure to interventions might help increase their efficiency and make more of an impact with patients. But they found little information on the intervention characteristics related to greater exposure. In response, they sought to identify which methods and strategies among existing interventions promote exposure and what objective outcomes measures researchers use to gauge success.

The researchers performed a systematic review of literature published between 1995 and 2009. They identified 64 studies that focused on interventions intended to prevent chronic physical diseases among adults ages 18 years and older and that reported measures of exposure, such as completion of an initial visit, number of logins, and time spent on the website.

The authors found a range of behavior change techniques and exposure-promoting elements in the interventions, which promoted a variety of lifestyle behaviors. The elements that appeared most frequently were feedback, interactive elements, and email/phone contact of visitors. Enhanced exposure was more likely if peer support (such as a patient forum or a chat room), counselor support (such as ask-the-expert and counselor-led chat sessions), email/phone contact with visitors, and website updates. They conclude that, “More research is needed to gain insight into how intervention characteristics can be used to improve exposure to Internet interventions.”

Source: Brouwer W, Kroeze W, Crutzen R, et al. 2011. Which intervention characteristics are related to more exposure to Internet-delivered healthy lifestyle promotion interventions? A systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research 13(1):e2.