Messaging programmes showed mixed results across health behaviours
Compared with controls, messaging interventions favoured physical activity, sleep and smoking cessation outcomes. Results for sedentary behaviour and diet were harder to interpret because the abstract contains conflicting statistical details.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Messaging programmes were associated with favourable pooled results for physical activity, sleep and stopping smoking compared with controls. The abstract described no effect on sedentary behaviour or diet, but its statistical details for those outcomes conflict. The evidence therefore needs to be read by individual behaviour rather than treated as proof that messaging improves health habits generally.
Participant characteristics, programme durations and control conditions are not described. The abstract also leaves the sleep measurement unclear, so its standardized sleep result cannot be translated into a concrete change in sleep.
What researchers found
Smoking cessation
Messaging versus control groups: odds ratio 1.88 (95% CI 1.28 to 2.7). Assessment timing was not reported.
Odds are a statistical comparison
The smoking result compares the odds of quitting between groups. It does not state the percentage of participants who quit, and the abstract provides no underlying quit rates from which to describe an absolute difference.
Conflicting details require caution
For sedentary behaviour and diet, the reported confidence intervals include no difference, consistent with the authors' negative conclusions. However, the accompanying p-values suggest statistical significance. The abstract alone cannot resolve this disagreement.
The original publication
The Effectiveness of Instant Messaging-Based Interventions on Health Behavior Change: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Hou T, Ho MH, Li H et al.
Worldviews Evid Based Nurs · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40717021
- Record checked
AI-assisted research and writing. This explains one selected publication; it is not a complete review of everything known. Our approach.
One more question, understood.
Keep track of the research you’ve explored.