Trial reportJournal of medical Internet research2012
Effects of functional interactivity on patients' knowledge, empowerment, and health outcomes: an experimental model-driven evaluation of a web-based intervention.
Trial report in Journal of medical Internet research, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 3 of them syntheses 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
23 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Scoping review of equity considerations in digitally enabled patient education interventions for self-managing chronic musculoskeletal pain.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- The Empowering Role of Web-Based Help Seeking on Depressive Symptoms: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Digital Educational Strategies to Teach Skin Self-examination to Individuals at Risk for Skin Cancer.Journal of health communication · 2022Trial
- Effects of Website Interactivity on Skin Cancer-Related Intentions and User Experience: Factorial Randomized Experiment.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Trial
- Trial
- Effectiveness of a smartphone app to increase parents' knowledge and empowerment in the MMR vaccination decision: A randomized controlled trial.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2017Trial
- Effectiveness of a Web-based tailored interactive health communication application for patients with type 2 diabetes or chronic low back pain: randomized controlled trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2015Trial
- The effect of social support features and gamification on a Web-based intervention for rheumatoid arthritis patients: randomized controlled trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2015Trial
- Evaluating an e-mental health program ("deprexis") as adjunctive treatment tool in psychotherapy for depression: design of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial.BMC psychiatry · 2014Trial
- Interactive sections of an Internet-based intervention increase empowerment of chronic back pain patients: randomized controlled trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2014Trial
- Internet-based treatment of major depression for patients on a waiting list for inpatient psychotherapy: protocol for a multi-centre randomised controlled trial.BMC psychiatry · 2013Trial
- Improving communication to enhance health literacy and self-management of heart failure: protocol for a multimethod study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Attitude and potential benefits of modern information and communication technology use and telemedicine in cross-sectoral solid organ transplant care.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Social Cognitive Theories and Electronic Health Design: Scoping Review.JMIR human factors · 2019Article
- The potential of eHealth in otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery: patients' perspectives.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2017Article
- What to Build for Middle-Agers to Come? Attractive and Necessary Functions of Exercise-Promotion Mobile Phone Apps: A Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2017Article
- The Relationship Between Health Management and Information Behavior Over Time: A Study of the Illness Journeys of People Living With Fibromyalgia.Journal of medical Internet research · 2016Article
- Feasibility of Applied Gaming During Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation for Patients With Complex Chronic Pain and Fatigue Complaints: A Mixed-Methods Study.JMIR serious games · 2016Article
- Do health literacy and patient empowerment affect self-care behaviour? A survey study among Turkish patients with diabetes.BMJ open · 2016Article
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 at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe effectiveness of eHealth interventions in terms of reach and outcomes is now well documented. However, there is a need to understand not only whether eHealth interventions work, but also what kind of functions and mechanisms enhance their effectiveness. The present investigation contributes to tackling these challenges by investigating the role played by functional interactivity on patients' knowledge, empowerment, and health outcomes.
objectivesTo test whether health knowledge and empowerment mediate a possible relationship between the availability of interactive features on an eHealth application and individuals' health outcomes. We present an empirical, model-driven evaluation of the effects of functional interactivity implemented in an eHealth application, based on a brief theoretical review of the constructs of interactivity, health knowledge, empowerment, and health outcomes. We merged these constructs into a theoretical model of interactivity effects that we tested on an eHealth application for patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS).
methodsThis study used a pretest-posttest experimental design. We recruited 165 patients and randomly assigned them to three study groups, corresponding to different levels of functional interactivity. Eligibility to participate in the study required that patients (1) be fluent in Italian, (2) have access to the Internet, (3) report confidence in how to use a computer, and (4) have received a diagnosis of FMS from a doctor. We used structural equation modeling techniques to analyze changes between the pretest and the posttest results.
resultsThe main finding was that functional interactivity had no impact on empowerment dimensions, nor direct observable effects on knowledge. However, knowledge positively affected health outcomes (b = -.12, P = .02), as did the empowerment dimensions of meaning (b = -.49, P < .001) and impact (b = -.25, P < .001).
conclusionThe theoretical model was partially confirmed, but only as far as the effects of knowledge and empowerment were concerned. The differential effect of interactive functions was by far weaker than expected. The strong impact of knowledge and empowerment on health outcomes suggests that these constructs should be targeted and enhanced by eHealth applications.
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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 OpenQuestion graph.