Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35322172›Full record

ReviewNPJ digital medicine2022

Culturally adapting internet- and mobile-based health promotion interventions might not be worth the effort: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Sumeyye Balci, Kerstin Spanhel, Lasse Bosse Sander, Harald Baumeister

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in NPJ digital medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
26citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

26 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  8. Disseminating Health Prevention Programs Using AI-Crafted, Culturally Tailored Ads for Somali American Adolescents.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2026
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  9. A Scoping Review of the Mechanisms Influencing Socioeconomic Disparities in Outcomes of Digital Interventions for Weight-Related Behaviors.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Sumeyye BalciDepartment of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Lise-Meitner-Str. 16, D-89081, Ulm, Germany. sumeyye.balci@uni-ulm.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8219-6163
Kerstin SpanhelDepartment of Rehabilitation Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Engelbergerstr. 41, D-79085, Freiburg, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4889-1274
Lasse Bosse SanderDepartment of Rehabilitation Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Engelbergerstr. 41, D-79085, Freiburg, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4222-9837
Harald BaumeisterDepartment of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Lise-Meitner-Str. 16, D-89081, Ulm, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2040-661X

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Health promotion interventions offer great potential in advocating a healthy lifestyle and the prevention of diseases. Some barriers to communicating health promotion to people of certain cultural groups might be overcome via the internet- and mobile-based interventions (IMI). This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to explore the effectiveness of culturally adapted IMI for health promotion interventions among culturally diverse populations. We systematically searched on Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EbscoHost/MEDLINE, Ovid/Embase, EbscoHost/PsychINFO, and Web of Science databases in October 2020. Out of 9438 records, 13 randomized controlled trials (RCT) investigating culturally adapted health promotion IMI addressing healthy eating, physical activity, alcohol consumption, sexual health behavior, and smoking cessation included. From the included studies 10,747 participants were eligible. Culturally adapted IMI proved to be non-superior over active control conditions in short- (g = 0.10, [95% CI -0.19 to 0.40]) and long-term (g = 0.20, [95% CI -0.11 to 0.51]) in promoting health behavior. However, culturally adapted IMI for physical activity (k = 3, N = 296) compared to active controls yielded a beneficial effect in long-term (g = 0.48, [95%CI 0.25 to 0.71]). Adapting health promotion IMI to the cultural context of different cultural populations seems not yet to be recommendable given the substantial adaption efforts necessary and the mostly non-significant findings. However, these findings need to be seen as preliminary given the limited number of included trials with varying methodological rigor and the partly substantial between-trial heterogeneity pointing in the direction of potentially useful culturally adapted IMI which now need to be disentangled from the less promising approaches.PROSPERO registration number: 42020152939.

Identifiers

PMID35322172
PMCPMC8943001

What Socratic holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.