Review and special articleTelephone-Delivered Interventions for Physical Activity and Dietary Behavior Change: An Updated Systematic Review
Section snippets
Context
The importance of regular physical activity and a healthy diet is widely recognized in the prevention and management of many prevalent chronic conditions, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers.1 In the context of an aging population, and concerns about increasing rates of overweight and obesity and lifestyle-related chronic diseases, effective and broad-reaching physical activity and dietary-change interventions are required. The evidence base for
Search Strategy and Data Sources
To identify studies published since the last review a structured search of PubMed, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO was conducted from January 2006 to April 2010. The following search terms were used: (telephone interventions OR phone interventions OR telephone programs OR phone programs OR telephone trials OR phone trials OR telephone intervention trials OR phone intervention trials OR automated telephone OR automated phone) AND (diet OR nutrition OR dietary intake OR physical activity OR exercise).
Study Selection
The search yielded a total of 375 publications across the three databases. Of these publications, 349 were excluded (Figure 1). An additional dissemination study published prior to 2006 was identified and included. Thus, the total number of studies included in the review was 25 (reported in 27 publications). Two studies evaluated two telephone intervention conditions, thus the total number of comparisons was 27. The total number of participants across all studies was 11,174.
Intervention targets, frequency, and duration
Of the 25 studies,
Discussion
This systematic review updates an earlier review5 of telephone-delivered physical activity and dietary intervention studies published in 2007. Of particular note is the increasing rate of publications, with this update identifying almost as many studies published within a 4-year period as the previous review, which included studies conducted over 4 decades. This update found continued strong evidence for telephone-delivered physical activity and dietary behavior interventions for producing
Conclusion and Recommendations
Findings from this updated review provide continuing strong evidence supporting the efficacy of telephone-delivered interventions to promote physical activity and dietary change. In fact, the evidence is so strong that it supports the contention by Kessler and Glasgow, put forward recently in this journal,12 that RCT designs (at least those comparing a telephone-delivered intervention to a no-treatment control) are no longer needed. What is needed is a concerted focus on research that may
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2021, Preventive Medicine ReportsCitation Excerpt :One approach is to contact members by telephone and mail to offer initial support to start using the fitness center. Although this approach has been investigated in other settings (Goode et al., 2015; Goode et al., 2012; Fischer et al., 2019; Vandelanotte et al., 2007), it has not been investigated in a fitness center setting. Therefore, this randomized controlled trial aimed to investigate if initial support given to new fitness center members via telephone and e-mail to use the fitness center facilities, compared to self-directed use, had an effect on booking with a fitness trainer free of extra charge, the number of visits to the center and membership duration during four years after enrollment.
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