Future challenges for intervention research in health and lifestyle research—A systematic meta-literature review

The overall aim of this systematic meta-literature review was to (1) summarize the findings of review studies focusing on health determinants, (2) give an overview of intervention studies that have been used to facilitate health and lifestyle, and (3) provide recommendations for future studies in health promotion. A literature review, using a meta-method, was conducted to identify health and lifestyle research based on research articles related to health changes. The search yielded a total of 561 unique citations and finally 24 citations remained. Of those, 11 studies focused on health determinants, whereas 13 focused on interventions for health promotion. Results from this meta-synthesis led to four recommendations for the design of future intervention studies. (1) To increase the likelihood of capturing different biopsychosocial aspects of health, researchers from different scientific disciplines should collaborate in the design, implementation, and evaluation of the study. (2) It is recommended to use theoretical frameworks that focus on health determinants in longitudinal studies with a repeated measures design. (3) Studies should involve behavioral interventions. (4) Design face-to-face intervention studies where the participant can interact with other persons.