title: A meta-analysis of web-delivered tailored health behavior change interventions.
abstract: Web-based tailored intervention programs show considerable promise in effecting health-promoting behaviors and improving health outcomes across a variety of medical conditions and patient populations. This meta-analysis compares the effects of tailored versus nontailored web-based interventions on health behaviors and explores the influence of key moderators on treatment outcomes. Forty experimental and quasi-experimental studies (N =20,180) met criteria for inclusion and were analyzed using meta-analytic procedures. The findings indicated that web-based tailored interventions effected significantly greater improvement in health outcomes as compared with control conditions both at posttesting, d =.139 (95% CI = .111, .166, p <.001, k =40) and at follow-up, d =.158 (95% CI = .124, .192, p <.001, k =21). The authors found no evidence of publication bias. These results provided further support for the differential benefits of tailored web-based interventions over nontailored approaches. Analysis of participant/descriptive, intervention, and methodological moderators shed some light on factors that may be important to the success of tailored interventions. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: College of Communication and Information, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA. mlustria@fsu.edu
authors.forename: Mia Liza A
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Lustria
authors.forename: Seth M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Noar
authors.forename: Juliann
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cortese
authors.forename: Stephanie K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Van Stee
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Glueckauf
authors.forename: Junga
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015397:Program Evaluation; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult