ArticleJMIR mHealth and uHealth2023
Participant Engagement in Microrandomized Trials of mHealth Interventions: Scoping Review.
Article in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Toward Participatory Precision Health With Co-Designed Recommendations: Systematic Review of Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions in Adolescents and Young Adults.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- Population-Based Cancer Prevention Education Intervention Through mHealth: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical systems · 2024Trial
- Automated Personalized Goal Setting for Individual Exercise Behavior: Protocol for a Web-Based Adaptive Intervention Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Engagement with mHealth Alcohol Interventions: User Perspectives on an App or Chatbot-Delivered Program to Reduce Drinking.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Digital Adaptive Behavioral Interventions to Improve HIV Prevention and Care: Innovations in Intervention Approach and Experimental Design.Current HIV/AIDS reports · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMicrorandomized trials (MRTs) have emerged as the gold standard for the development and evaluation of multicomponent, adaptive mobile health (mHealth) interventions. However, not much is known about the state of participant engagement measurement in MRTs of mHealth interventions.
objectiveIn this scoping review, we aimed to quantify the proportion of existing or planned MRTs of mHealth interventions to date that have assessed (or have planned to assess) engagement. In addition, for the trials that have explicitly assessed (or have planned to assess) engagement, we aimed to investigate how engagement has been operationalized and to identify the factors that have been studied as determinants of engagement in MRTs of mHealth interventions.
methodsWe conducted a broad search for MRTs of mHealth interventions in 5 databases and manually searched preprint servers and trial registries. Study characteristics of each included evidence source were extracted. We coded and categorized these data to identify how engagement has been operationalized and which determinants, moderators, and covariates have been assessed in existing MRTs.
resultsOur database and manual search yielded 22 eligible evidence sources. Most of these studies (14/22, 64%) were designed to evaluate the effects of intervention components. The median sample size of the included MRTs was 110.5. At least 1 explicit measure of engagement was included in 91% (20/22) of the included MRTs. We found that objective measures such as system usage data (16/20, 80%) and sensor data (7/20, 35%) are the most common methods of measuring engagement. All studies included at least 1 measure of the physical facet of engagement, but the affective and cognitive facets of engagement have largely been neglected (only measured by 1 study each). Most studies measured engagement with the mHealth intervention (Little e) and not with the health behavior of interest (Big E). Only 6 (30%) of the 20 studies that measured engagement assessed the determinants of engagement in MRTs of mHealth interventions; notification-related variables were the most common determinants of engagement assessed (4/6, 67% studies). Of the 6 studies, 3 (50%) examined the moderators of participant engagement-2 studies investigated time-related moderators exclusively, and 1 study planned to investigate a comprehensive set of physiological and psychosocial moderators in addition to time-related moderators.
conclusionsAlthough the measurement of participant engagement in MRTs of mHealth interventions is prevalent, there is a need for future trials to diversify the measurement of engagement. There is also a need for researchers to address the lack of attention to how engagement is determined and moderated. We hope that by mapping the state of engagement measurement in existing MRTs of mHealth interventions, this review will encourage researchers to pay more attention to these issues when planning for engagement measurement in future trials.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
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.