Key Design Considerations for Digital Work Stress Interventions: Content Analysis & Narrative Synthesis (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Work-related stress is a pervasive issue with significant implications for individual well-being, organizational productivity, and societal costs. Preventive interventions are a promising avenue for mitigating the negative health consequences of stress. More specifically, Digital Behavior Change Interventions (DBCIs) offer a scalable means of support that can be made widely available. However, evidence-based design guidelines specifically tailored for DBCIs targeting work stress are needed to support development efforts and enhance intervention quality. OBJECTIVE The primary aim was to identify key features in digital interventions for work stress to develop practical guidelines for intervention development. METHODS A deductive content analysis identified key features in peer-reviewed mental health interventions to inform recommended guidelines. Interventions were included for analysis based on being digital interventions targeting mental health for an overall healthy population. Interventions with better documentation (e.g., more detailed Methods sections describing the intervention) were prioritized. Selected interventions were subsequently analyzed by coding and mapping features using the Behavior Change Technique (BCT) Taxonomy and the Persuasive System Design (PSD) framework. A narrative synthesis approach was used to integrate and interpret findings across the reviewed interventions. RESULTS Ten interventions were included for analysis. The analysis revealed that many features in the reviewed applications could be coded according to the BCT taxonomy and PSD framework. Self-monitoring, prompting, and personalization features were the most common while features related to goal setting, rewards and social support were less frequently observed. Some intervention features integrated several BCTs and PSD principles within the same feature. CONCLUSIONS We propose key design guidelines for developing more effective DBCIs for work stress. These include: (1) continuing to leverage core synergistic features such as self-monitoring, prompting, and personalization; (2) including underutilized features like goal setting and reward functions which can be smoothly integrated within common intervention formats, (3) embedding scalable social support, for instance by connecting co-workers with each other, (4) developing features that activate several behavioral mechanisms. Adhering to these guidelines may help optimize DBCIs for improved user engagement and intervention outcomes.