Exploring psychosocial barriers in digital walking interventions for the chronically ill: a scoping review
Abstract
Objective: This scoping review aimed to identify and systematically map existing evidence on psychosocial barriers in digital physical activity interventions promoting walking among individuals with chronic illness.
Introduction: Digital interventions promoting walking are widely used in chronic disease management and demonstrate short-term effectiveness. Psychosocial barriers, such as stigma, illness-related beliefs, and internalized meanings, may play a critical role in shaping both intervention engagement and behavioral outcomes, yet their conceptualization and integration into intervention design remain unclear.
Inclusion criteria: Quantitative and qualitative studies on psychosocial barriers in digital physical activity interventions focusing on walking among individuals with chronic illness.
Methods: A three-step search strategy was conducted across PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycINFO, complemented by gray literature. Studies in English with no date restrictions were included. Screening was conducted according to predefined inclusion criteria, with backward citation searching applied. Data on study characteristics, participants, intervention features, and psychosocial barriers were extracted. Descriptive statistics and qualitative synthesis were used to map barrier domains.
Results: A total of 28 studies were included, resulting in 105 psychosocial barrier instances grouped into seven domains. The most frequent were belief-based (21.0%) and emotional barriers…
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