Educational digital strategies for promoting healthy habits in the prevention of chronic diseases in adolescents

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62305/biosana.v6i1.1047

Keywords:

Digital platforms; adolescence; healthy habits; health education; non-communicable chronic diseases

Abstract

Non-communicable chronic diseases represent one of the main causes of morbidity among adolescents and are associated with unhealthy dietary habits, sedentary lifestyles, and prolonged exposure to digital environments. The objective of this systematic review was to synthesize the available scientific evidence on the use of educational digital strategies aimed at promoting healthy habits in adolescents. A systematic search was conducted in the PubMed and SciELO databases, covering the period from 2016 to 2025, using descriptors related to digital platforms, health promotion, and adolescence. Studies published in Spanish, English, and Portuguese were included, comprising descriptive, quasi-experimental, experimental, and educational intervention designs. In total, 13 articles met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed. The results showed that educational digital platforms contributed to improvements in knowledge, motivation, and selected behaviors related to healthy eating and physical activity. However, the effects on long-term anthropometric and behavioral indicators were variable and depended on the duration of the intervention, educational support, and implementation context. In conclusion, educational digital strategies represent a promising approach for promoting healthy habits among adolescents.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

OMS. (2025). Noncommunicable diseases. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases

García Muñoz, S. (with Organization of American States). (2023). Las enfermedades no transmisibles y los derechos humanos en las Américas. Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos.

UNICEF. (2025). Protegiendo la nutrición y la salud mental de los adolescentes en América Latina y el Caribe: Abordando las influencias obesogénicas y socioculturales [Informe de Politica]. UNICEF – Oficina Regional para América Latina y el Caribe; PDF. https://www.unicef.org/lac/media/52921/file/Informe%20de%20pol%C3%ADticas_Estudio%20Regional%20Salud.pdf.pdf

FAO. (2023). New UN report: 43.2 million people suffer from hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the region has higher levels of overweight and obesity than the global estimate. FAO RegionalOffice-LatinAmerica-RLC. https://www.fao.org/americas/news/news-detail/New-UN-report-43-2-million-people-suffer-from-hunger-in-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean-and-the-region-has-higher-levels-of-overweight-and-obesity-than-the-global-estimate-/

MSP. (2023). MSP construye la ‘Política Nacional para la Atención Integral de Enfermedades No Transmisibles 2023-2027’ en Ecuador – Ministerio de Salud Pública. https://www.salud.gob.ec/msp-construye-la-politica-nacional-para-la-atencion-integral-de-enfermedades-no-transmisibles-2023-2027-en-ecuador/

Alcântara, C. M. de, Silva, A. N. S., Pinheiro, P. N. da C., & Queiroz, M. V. O. (2019). Digital technologies for promotion of healthy eating habits in teenagers. Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, 72, 513-520. https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2018-0352

Martínez Lara, V., Ramírez de León, J. A., Morales Ramírez, D., & González Pérez, B. (2025). Diseño y validación de un instrumento para medir los hábitos saludables y el estado emocional en adolescentes. Nutrición Hospitalaria, 42(2), 219-231. https://doi.org/10.20960/nh.05470

Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., Shamseer, L., Tetzlaff, J. M., Akl, E. A., Brennan, S. E., Chou, R., Glanville, J., Grimshaw, J. M., Hróbjartsson, A., Lalu, M. M., Li, T., Loder, E. W., Mayo-Wilson, E., McDonald, S., … Alonso-Fernández, S. (2021). Declaración PRISMA 2020: Una guía actualizada para la publicación de revisiones sistemáticas. Revista Española de Cardiología, 74(9), 790-799. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.recesp.2021.06.016

Yuri-Rosales, R., Cordovéz-Macias, S., Fernández-Vélez, Y., & Álvarez-Carrión, S. (2023). Estado nutricional y actividad física en estudiantes universitarios. Una revisión sistemática. 2023, 50(4), 445-456.

Joanna Briggs Institute. (2024, noviembre 24). JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis. https://jbi-global-wiki.refined.site/space/MANUAL/355599504/jbi-global-wiki.refined.site

OPS. (2024). DeCS – Descritores em Ciências da Saúde [Https://scielo.org/]. Descriptores en Ciencias de la Salud (DeCS). https://decs.bvsalud.org/

Corporation for Digital Scholarship. (2024). Zotero | Your personal research assistant. https://www.zotero.org/

Ouzzani, M., Hammady, H., Fedorowicz, Z., & Elmagarmid, A. (2016). Rayyan—A web and mobile app for systematic reviews. Systematic Reviews, 5(1), 210. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-016-0384-4

Lubans, D. R., Smith, J. J., Plotnikoff, R. C., Dally, K. A., Okely, A. D., Salmon, J., & Morgan, P. J. (2016). Assessing the sustained impact of a school-based obesity prevention program for adolescent boys: The ATLAS cluster randomized controlled trial. The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 13, 92. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-016-0420-8

Pareja Sierra, S. L., Roura Carvajal, E., Milà-Villarroel, R., & Adot Caballero, A. (2018). Estudio y promoción de hábitos alimentarios saludables y de actividad física entre los adolescentes españoles: Programa TAS (tú y Alicia por la salud). Nutrición Hospitalaria, 35(SPE4), 121-129. https://doi.org/10.20960/nh.2137

Sundar, T. K. B., Løndal, K., Lagerløv, P., Glavin, K., & Helseth, S. (2018). Overweight adolescents’ views on physical activity - experiences of participants in an internet-based intervention: A qualitative study. BMC Public Health, 18(1), 448. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5324-x

Brito Beck da Silva, K., Ortelan, N., Giardini Murta, S., Sartori, I., Couto, R. D., Leovigildo Fiaccone, R., Lima Barreto, M., Jones Bell, M., Barr Taylor, C., & Ribeiro-Silva, R. de C. (2019). Evaluation of the Computer-Based Intervention Program Stayingfit Brazil to Promote Healthy Eating Habits: The Results from a School Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(10), 1674. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16101674

Likhitweerawong, N., Boonchooduang, N., Kittisakmontri, K., Chonchaiya, W., & Louthrenoo, O. (2021). Effectiveness of mobile application on changing weight, healthy eating habits, and quality of life in children and adolescents with obesity: A randomized controlled trial. BMC Pediatrics, 21(1), 499. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-021-02980-x

Chávez-Mora, E., Monares, S., & Troncoso-Pantoja, C. (2022). Guías alimentarias en adolescentes: Piloto sobre uso de aplicación web para estilos de vida saludables. 22 de noviembre de 2021, 49(1), 62-69. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0717-75182022000100062

Champion, K. E., Newton, N. C., Gardner, L. A., Chapman, C., Thornton, L., Slade, T., Sunderland, M., Hides, L., McBride, N., O’Dean, S., Kay-Lambkin, F., Allsop, S., Lubans, D. R., Parmenter, B., Mills, K., Spring, B., Osman, B., Ellem, R., Smout, S., … Health4Life Team. (2023). Health4Life eHealth intervention to modify multiple lifestyle risk behaviours among adolescent students in Australia: A cluster-randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Digital Health, 5(5), e276-e287. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(23)00028-6

Tugault-Lafleur, C. N., De-Jongh González, O., Macdonald, J., Bradbury, J., Warshawski, T., Ball, G. D. C., Morrison, K., Ho, J., Hamilton, J., Buchholz, A., & Mâsse, L. (2023). Efficacy of the Aim2Be Intervention in Changing Lifestyle Behaviors Among Adolescents With Overweight and Obesity: Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25, e38545. https://doi.org/10.2196/38545

O’Dean, S. M., Sunderland, M., Smout, S., Slade, T., Chapman, C., Gardner, L. A., Thornton, L., Newton, N. C., Teesson, M., & Champion, K. E. (2024). Potential Mediators of a School-Based Digital Intervention Targeting Six Lifestyle Risk Behaviours in a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial of Australian Adolescents. Prevention Science: The Official Journal of the Society for Prevention Research, 25(2), 347-357. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-023-01616-z

Sousa, A. S. de J., Amorim Júnior, J. de S., Moura, I. H. de, Silva, A. R. V. da, Andrade, E. M. L. R., Sousa, A. S. de J., Amorim Júnior, J. de S., Moura, I. H. de, Silva, A. R. V. da, & Andrade, E. M. L. R. (2024). Construction and validation of a podcast for the prevention of metabolic syndrome in adolescents. Texto & Contexto - Enfermagem, 33. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-265x-tce-2023-0360en

Hedin, L., Seiterö, A., Crawford, J., Bendtsen, M., & Löf, M. (2025). Mediated effects of LIFE4YOUth-a mobile health intervention for multiple lifestyle behavior change among high school students in Sweden: Findings from a randomized controlled trial. BMC Public Health, 25(1), 922. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-22097-5

Nie, Y., Tan, Q., Son, P., Staiano, A. E., Rosenkranz, R. R., Spring, K. E., Suárez-Reyes, M., Underwood, R. A., Androzzi, J. N., Wang, F., & Chen, S. (2025). Testing an adapted obesity prevention intervention in under resourced schools: A pilot clustered randomized controlled trial. Sci Rep, 15(31678). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-16754-3

Wang, J. (2025). An adaptive AI-based virtual reality sports system for adolescents with excess body weight: A randomized controlled trial. Nature Medicine, 31(7), 2255-2268. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03724-5

Published

2026-03-04

How to Cite

Alonzo Velez, M. A., Orozco Falconi , J., & Flores Peralta , M. C. (2026). Educational digital strategies for promoting healthy habits in the prevention of chronic diseases in adolescents . BIOSANA Health Scientific Journal. ISSN 2960-8481, 6(1), 158–174. https://doi.org/10.62305/biosana.v6i1.1047

Issue

Section

Artículos de revisión