Effects of Psychological or Exercise Interventions on Problematic Mobile Phone Use: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Purpose of Review Problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) has become a public health issue. This study sought to investigate the effects of psychological interventions (PI) or exercise interventions (EI) for PMPU through a systematic review and meta-analysis. A literature search of ten databases was executed from January 2001 to August 2022. A total of 26 eligible RCTs (31 pairwise comparisons) were finally included. Posttreatment means and SDs were compared between intervention and control groups, and pooled effect sizes were calculated. This study is registered on PROSPERO, number CRD42022296418. Recent findings A meta-analysis of 31 pairwise comparisons showed that interventions significantly reduced the total PMPU scores (SMD = − 1.00), with significant heterogeneity ( I 2 = 72.8%). Twenty-three of these trials reported PI (SMD = − 0.99) and the other eight reported EI (SMD = − 1.02); the change in total PMPU scores was not significantly different between PI and EI ( P = 0.787). Among them, the largest effect sizes were found for mindfulness therapy (MT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and general aerobic exercise (GAE) (MT: SMD = − 1.50; CBT: SMD = − 1.37; GAE: SMD = − 1.32). In addition, interventions also reduced the MPUT (SMD = − 0.91), anxiety (SMD = − 1.63), loneliness (SMD = − 1.10), stress (SMD = − 0.59), and depression (SMD = − 0.31), and increased mindful attention (SMD = 1.07) and inadequacy (SMD = 1.12). Summary This is the first meta-analysis on PI or EI for PMPU. The results showed that PI or EI was equally effective in reducing PMPU. However, more rigorous trials are needed to explore intervention criteria.