Can interest and enjoyment help to increase use of Internet-delivered interventions?

Abstract

Objective: Internet-delivered interventions have proven efficacious in changing people’s behaviours and related determinants, but the actual use of these interventions by the target group is often very low. This article investigates whether arousing interest and enjoyment results in increased intervention use in an online context.

Design: Invitations to visit a website about Hepatitis A, B and C virus infections (Studies 1 and 3) and the website itself (Studies 2 and 3) were manipulated to arouse interest and enjoyment.

Main Outcome Measures: Intention to visit the website (Study 1), clicking on the link to visit the website (Studies 2 and 3) and the number of pages visited on the website (Study 3).

Results: Arousing interest through an invitation resulted in a higher intention to visit the website (Study 1) and a higher likelihood of clicking on the link to visit the website in comparison with arousing enjoyment (Study 2). The number of pages visited increased when interest was aroused on the website itself (Study 3).

Conclusion: Arousing interest is a promising strategy to increase use of Internet-delivered interventions and potentially increase the public health impact of these interventions.

Keywords:

• interest
• enjoyment
• eHealth
• intervention use

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme Veni from NWO-MaGW (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research – Division for the Social Sciences) accredited to the first author.