SynthesisJournal of medical Internet research2022
Trends in Effectiveness of Organizational eHealth Interventions in Addressing Employee Mental Health: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of medical Internet research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 3 of them syntheses 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
17 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Optimizing Workplace Digital Mental Health Interventions: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Digital Mental Health Interventions in the Workplace: Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews.JMIR mental health · 2025Pooled it
- Acceptability of Tele-mental Health Services Among Users: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy of a Web-Based Stress Management Intervention for Beginning Teachers on Reducing Stress and Mechanisms of Change: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Trial
- Effectiveness and Lessons Learned From an Occupational E-Mental Health Intervention for Enhancing Workplace Mental Health: The EMPOWER Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.Interactive journal of medical research · 2026Article
- The effectiveness of online acceptance and commitment therapy-based interventions on depression, burnout, anxiety and stress in occupational contexts: A systematic narrative review.Internet interventions · 2026Review
- Impact of Digital Interventions in Occupational Health Care: A Systematic Review.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Digital health · 2025Review
- Effectiveness of workplace interventions for health promotion.The Lancet. Public health · 2025Review
- Digital Wellness Programs in the Workplace: Meta-Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Review
- A systematic realist synthesis of digital interventions for enhancing mental health at work: contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes.International journal of mental health systems · 2025Review
- Web-based occupational stress prevention in German micro- and small-sized enterprises - process evaluation results of an implementation study.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Adaptation and implementation of an employee mental health disclosure decision aid tool in a real-world sample.Translational behavioral medicine · 2024Article
- Impacts of COVID-19 on Stress in Middle School Teachers and Staff in Minnesota: An Exploratory Study Using Random Forest Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- The Role of Human and Organizational Factors in the Pursuit of One Digital Health.Yearbook of medical informatics · 2023Article
- Online mental health training program for male-dominated organisations: a pre-post pilot study assessing feasibility, usability, and preliminary effectiveness.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2023Article
- Practical pathway for the management of depression in the workplace: a Canadian perspective.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMental health conditions are considered the leading cause of disability, sickness absence, and long-term work incapacity. eHealth interventions provide employees with access to psychological assistance. There has been widespread implementation and provision of eHealth interventions in the workplace as an inexpensive and anonymous way of addressing common mental disorders.
objectiveThis updated review aimed to synthesize the literature on the efficacy of eHealth interventions for anxiety, depression, and stress outcomes in employee samples in organizational settings and evaluate whether their effectiveness has improved over time.
methodsSystematic searches of relevant articles published from 2004 to July 2020 of eHealth intervention trials (app- or web-based) focusing on the mental health of employees were conducted. The quality and bias of all studies were assessed. We extracted means and SDs from publications by comparing the differences in effect sizes (Hedge g) in standardized mental health outcomes. We meta-analyzed these data using a random-effects model.
resultsWe identified a tripling of the body of evidence, with 75 trials available for meta-analysis from a combined sample of 14,747 articles. eHealth interventions showed small positive effects for anxiety (Hedges g=0.26, 95% CI 0.13-0.39; P<.001), depression (Hedges g=0.26, 95% CI 0.19-0.34; P<.001), and stress (Hedges g=0.25, 95% CI 0.17-0.34; P<.001) in employees' after intervention, with similar effects seen at the medium-term follow-up. However, there was evidence of no increase in the effectiveness of these interventions over the past decade.
conclusionsThis review and meta-analysis confirmed that eHealth interventions have a small positive impact on reducing mental health symptoms in employees. Disappointingly, we found no evidence that, despite the advances in technology and the enormous resources in time, research, and finance devoted to this area for over a decade, better interventions are being produced. Hopefully, these small effect sizes do not represent optimum outcomes in organizational settings.
trial registrationPROSPERO CRD42020185859; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=185859.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion 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 OpenQuestion graph.