A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of social norms messaging approaches for improving health behaviours in developed countries.

ABSTRACT: Social norms approaches have been widely applied in health promotion as a cost-effective behaviour-change strategy, but have been little evaluated as a whole. We conducted a pre-registered systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials using social norms messaging in developed countries targeted at changing health behaviours among 16+-year-olds to evaluate their effectiveness. Relevant studies were identified through searches in PsycINFO, Medline, Embase, Web of Science, TRIP, Cochrane and grey literature sources. Risk of bias was assessed independently by two reviewers using the Cochrane RoB 2 tool. A random-effects meta-analysis standardized effect sizes to Cohen's d, assessed heterogeneity with I² and applied robust Bayesian meta-analysis to adjust for publication b

SUBMITTER: Papakonstantinou T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12727529 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature