ArticlemHealth2020
Chat-based hotlines for health promotion: a systematic review.
Article in mHealth, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Using a digital health tool to strengthen community engagement in arboviral disease prevention: an implementation study in Colombia.BMC public health · 2026Trial
- Working Without Faces: Job Demands, Resources, and Burnout in Anonymous Helpline Workers in Slovakia and the Czech Republic-A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- WeChat in China's mobile health: a bibliometric analysis of trends, hotspots, and academic contributions.JAMIA open · 2026Review
- Prevalence of Cognitive Distortion Markers in a Suicide Prevention Chat Service: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR mental health · 2026Article
- First Evaluation of a Novel Live-Chat Service for Preventing Child Sexual Abuse.Sexual offending (Trier, Germany) · 2026Article
- Digital chat-based care assessments in primary healthcare: nurses' work experiences and training needs.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2025Article
- Faith and access: The role of religion in formal mental health service utilization among Black adolescents.Children and youth services review · 2025Article
- STEMI under fire: evaluating management and challenges in a warzone amidst the 2023 Israeli conflict.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- An Explainable Artificial Intelligence Text Classifier for Suicidality Prediction in Youth Crisis Text Line Users: Development and Validation Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- Towards 'Formalising' WhatsApp Teledermatology Practice in KZ-N District Hospitals: Key Informant Interviews.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Predicting recurrent chat contact in a psychological intervention for the youth using natural language processing.NPJ digital medicine · 2024Article
- Digital clinical empathy in a live chat: multiple findings from a formative qualitative study and usability tests.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Evaluating event-based surveillance capacity in Africa: Use of the Africa CDC scorecard, 2022-2023.Preventive medicine reports · 2023Article
- Article
- Understanding Trust Determinants in a Live Chat Service on Familial Cancer: Qualitative Triangulation Study With Focus Groups and Interviews in Germany.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Satisfaction and Mental Health Outcomes Associated with a Large Regional Helpline.Community mental health journal · 2022Article
- Stressors and Information-Seeking by Dialysis and Transplant Patients During COVID-19, Reported on a Telephone Hotline: A Mixed-Methods Study.Kidney medicine · 2022Article
- Social Media in Dermatology and an Overview of Popular Social Media Platforms.Current dermatology reports · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundChat-based hotlines use online messaging services or popular chat applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat, to connect users to trained health providers or staff. Chat-based hotlines can provide real-time communication between health providers and patients.
methodsThe evidence for chat-based hotlines for health promotion has not been reviewed systematically. Electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane Database, Google Scholar) were searched to identify English-language studies describing original research published from 2009 to 2020. This review was registered with Prospero Register of Systematic Reviews (ID: CRD42020156670).
resultsTwelve publications met our criteria. Ten studies reported on user characteristics, eight on comparing use of chat-based hotlines with different modes of support, six on health outcomes and six on user satisfaction. Included studies report that chat-based hotlines have been used primarily for crisis and emotional support in high-income countries. Chat-based hotlines using instant messenger applications were preferred over other modes of services such as email, text messaging, voice calls, and face-to-face counselling. Evaluations of health outcomes, although limited in rigor due to mostly observational study designs, indicate mostly positive and statistically significant effects on mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, well-being and suicidality. User satisfaction with chat-based hotlines were moderately high.
conclusionsChat-based hotlines may be effective ways to deliver crisis support services in high income settings. They may have the potential to be effective in low- and middle-income countries to expand the reach of mental health and crisis support services although such services have not yet been publicly evaluated.
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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.