ReviewSexual medicine2026
Sex differences in digital dating app use and app-mediated sexual and health outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in Sexual medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Dating Applications as HIV Prevention Ecosystems in the Era of Digital Sexual Networks.Infectious disease reports · 2026Article
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
Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesize sex-based differences in dating app use, app-mediated sexual behaviors, and sexual health outcomes using sex-stratified quantitative data from observational studies. Methods: Conducted in accordance with PRISMA 2020 guidelines and prospectively registered in PROSPERO, this review synthesized sex-disaggregated data from observational studies published between 2008 and 2025.Systematic searches were performed in PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library. Outcomes included prevalence of dating app use, app-mediated casual sexual encounters, sexual function outcomes, sexual orientation distribution, experience of sexual intercourse, online versus offline partner-seeking behaviors, and history of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Random-effects meta-analyses were conducted, and heterogeneity was assessed using the Results: Twenty-two observational studies were included. Women were significantly less likely than men to report dating app use (odds ratio [OR] = 0.46, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.28-0.77; Conclusion: Dating app-related behaviors and outcomes differ by sex and are not sex-neutral. Men report higher engagement in dating app use and sexual risk-related behaviors, whereas women show distinct patterns in sexual function and psychosocial outcomes. These findings support the use of sex-stratified analytical frameworks and sex-sensitive interventions in digital dating contexts.
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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.