title: The promise and challenge of eHealth interventions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To discuss how health behavior researchers can use the Internet to study and intervene on health behavior.
  
  
  METHODS
  Describe how the Internet is increasingly able to offer a viable medium for health behavior intervention and the challenges and opportunities inherent in conducting online interventions and research.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The challenges of eHealth include coping with the additional demands of development, finding ways to reach "hard-to-reach" audiences, and maintaining privacy and security while monitoring participant use.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health behavior researchers and interventionists need to learn to apply eHealth tools to extend their ability to study and influence health behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public and Community Health, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Atkinson
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Gold
mesh_terms: D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D014481:United States