Meta-Analysis of Web-Delivered, Tailored Health Behavior Change Interventions

Background: 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. Purpose: This meta-analysis compares the effects of tailored versus non-tailored, web-based interventions on health behaviors, and explores the influence of key moderators on treatment outcomes. Methods: Forty experimental and quasi-experimental studies (N = 20,180) met criteria for inclusion and were analyzed using meta-analytic procedures. Results: The findings indicated that web- based, tailored interventions effected significantly greater improvement in health outcomes as compared to control conditions both at post-testing, d = .139 (95% CI = .111, .166, p<.001, k = 40) and at follow-up, d = .158 (95% CI = .124, .192, p<.001, k = 21). No evidence of publication bias was found. Conclusions: These results provided further support for the differential benefits of tailored web-based interventions over non-tailored 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.