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Review
. 2022 Feb 24:10:777567.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.777567. eCollection 2022.

A Systematic and Comparative Review of Behavior Change Strategies in Stress Management Apps: Opportunities for Improvement

Mona Alhasani  1 , Dinesh Mulchandani  1 , Oladapo Oyebode  1 , Nilufar Baghaei  2 , Rita Orji  1
Affiliations
Review

A Systematic and Comparative Review of Behavior Change Strategies in Stress Management Apps: Opportunities for Improvement

Mona Alhasani et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Stress is one of the significant triggers of several physiological and psychological illnesses. Mobile health apps have been used to deliver various stress management interventions and coping strategies over the years. However, little work exists on persuasive strategies employed in stress management apps to promote behavior change. To address this gap, we review 150 stress management apps on both Google Play and Apple's App Store in three stages. First, we deconstruct and compare the persuasive/behavior change strategies operationalized in the apps using the Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) framework and Cialdini's Principles of Persuasion. Our results show that the most frequently employed strategies are personalization, followed by self-monitoring, and trustworthiness, while social support strategies such as competition, cooperation and social comparison are the least employed. Second, we compare our findings within the stress management domain with those from other mental health domains to uncover further insights. Finally, we reflect on our findings and offer eight design recommendations to improve the effectiveness of stress management apps and foster future research.

Keywords: design recommendations; mental health; mobile health apps; persuasive strategies; persuasive technology; stress management; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
App selection process (150 apps selected).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Process of coding apps.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Stress management apps categorized according to their purpose.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Persuasive strategies under primary task support category and the corresponding number of apps that implemented individual strategies.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Persuasive strategies under dialogue support category and the corresponding number of apps that implemented individual strategies.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Persuasive strategies under social support category and the corresponding number of apps that implemented individual strategies.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Persuasive strategies under system credibility category and the corresponding number of apps that implemented individual strategies.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Persuasive strategies under CPP and the corresponding number of apps that implemented individual strategies.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Summary of persuasive strategies employed in stress management apps.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Comparing persuasive strategies in stress management apps with those in other mental health domains.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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