SynthesisPreventive medicine2022
Can positive psychological interventions improve health behaviors? A systematic review of the literature.
Synthesis in Preventive medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Positive psychological interventions for substance use, addiction and recovery: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- A Positive Psychology Intervention in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Survivors (PATH): A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial.Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network : JNCCN · 2024Trial
- Behavior change: from neurobiology to behavioral change theories and back - part 2.Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria · 2026Review
- Positive Psychotherapy for Smoking Cessation Enhanced with Text Messaging: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2026Article
- The mediating role of resilience in the relationship between cognitive flexibility and psychological well-being in patients with irritable bowel syndrome: a cross-sectional study.BMC gastroenterology · 2026Article
- Application of the Gratitude Intervention in the Healthcare Field: Scoping Review.Patient preference and adherence · 2026Review
- Posttraumatic growth theory as a framework for heart failure self-care intervention design.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Promoting resilience in stress management (PRISM) for patients with early stage breast cancer: a pilot feasibility study.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2025Article
- Article
- A Population Survey on Barriers and Facilitators to Breast Cancer Screening Based on the Theoretical Domains Framework.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Are the ways women cope with stressors related to their health behaviors over time?Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring novel determinants of exercise behavior: a lagged exposure-wide approach.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2025Article
- Gratitude and sleep disturbance in primary care patients: the mediating roles of health self-efficacy, health behaviors, and psychological distress.Frontiers in sleep · 2025Article
- Patient Perspectives on Lifestyle Medicine Virtual Group Visits.American journal of lifestyle medicine · 2024Article
- Exploring the impact of subjective well-being on medication adherence: A cross-sectional study among individuals with multiple chronic diseases.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2024Article
- Using Positive Psychology to Address Emotional Barriers to Physical Activity After Bariatric Surgery: Proof-of-Concept Trial of the Gaining Optimism After Weight Loss Surgery (GOALS) Project.Cognitive and behavioral practice · 2024Article
- Psychological Health and Ischemic Heart Disease in Women: A Review of Current Evidence and Clinical Considerations across the Healthspan.Current atherosclerosis reports · 2024Review
- Positive psychological well-being and cardiovascular health.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
- Positive cardiovascular health: longitudinal investigation of sustained health behavior in a cross-lagged model.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Positive psychological interventions (PPIs), which aim to cultivate psychological well-being, have the potential to improve health behavior adherence. This systematic review summarized the existing literature on PPI studies with a health behavior outcome to examine study methodology, quality, and efficacy. Of the 27 identified studies, 20 measured physical activity, eight measured medication adherence, seven measured diet, and three measured smoking (eight targeted multiple behaviors). Twenty studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs; 13 fully powered), and seven had a single-arm design. Study samples were usually adults (n = 21), majority non-Hispanic white (n = 15) and female (n = 14), and with a specific disease (e.g., diabetes, n = 16). Most interventions combined a PPI with health behavior-focused content (n = 17), used a remote delivery method (n = 17), and received a moderate or low study quality rating. Overall, 19/27 studies found a health behavior improvement of at least medium effect size, while six of the 13 studies powered to detect significant effects were statistically significant. Of the behaviors measured, physical activity was most likely to improve (14/20 studies). In summary, PPIs are being increasingly studied as a strategy to enhance health behavior adherence. The existing literature is limited by small sample size, low study quality and inconsistent intervention content and outcome measurement. Future research should establish the most effective components of PPIs that can be tailored to different populations, use objective health behavior measurement, and robustly examine the effects of PPIs on health behaviors in fully powered RCTs.
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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.