Effectiveness of gender-targeted versus gender-neutral interventions aimed at improving dietary intake, physical activity and/or overweight/obesity in young adults (aged 17–35 years): a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background

Young adulthood has become synonymous with the development of poor lifestyle behaviours associated with an increased risk of preventable chronic disease in later years. Interventions aiming to improve health behaviours may be more engaging and effective if they are targeted to males or females than interventions with a gender-neutral approach. This review will examine the outcome effectiveness of gender-targeted and gender-neutral interventions targeting nutrition, physical activity or overweight/obesity in young adults (17–35 years).

Methods

Six electronic databases were searched for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published up to December 2019 that evaluated nutrition, physical activity and/or overweight/obesity interventions in young adults (17–35 years). An effective intervention was one where the change in one or more primary outcome was positive and statistically significantly different from baseline, compared with control, or if no control comparator, compared with another active intervention. Effectiveness of outcomes was compared between gender-targeted and gender-neutral studies.

Results

In total 21,582 manuscripts were identified and 107 RCTs were included; 30 gender-targeted studies (28%) and 77 gender-neutral (72%). Most gender-targeted studies were female targeted ( n = 22, 73%). Primary outcome/s were adiposity ( n = 36, 34%), nutrition ( n = 29, 27%), physical activity ( n = 28, 26%), or a combination of ( n = 14, 14%). A greater proportion of gender-targeted than gender-neutral studies were effective in improving nutrition ( n = 6, 100% and n = 17, 74% of studies respectively) and physical activity outcomes (n = 6, 86% and n = 14, 67% respectively), where as a greater proportion of gender-neutral studies were effective in improving adiposity outcomes ( n = 13, 59% and n = 5, 36% respectively). None of these differences were statistically significant. Meta-analyses for weight found no significant differences between gender-targeted and gender-neutral studies for weight loss or weight gain prevention studies. Meta-analysis for fruit and vegetable intake demonstrated a significantly greater increase in intervention participants in gender-targeted studies of +158 g/day for > 3 months.

Conclusions

Although differences in outcome effectiveness were identified between gender-targeted and gender-neutral studies, these were not significantly different. This is likely due to an insufficient number of studies to detect a difference. The meta-analysis for fruit and vegetable intake findings should be interpreted with caution due to including only two gender-targeted studies. The findings collectively are suggestive of a potential difference requiring further investigation. To truly determine the effectiveness of gender-targeted interventions, well-designed RCTs comparing gender-targeted interventions with gender-neutral and control are needed.

Registration

This systematic review is a secondary analysis of studies included in a systematic review examining the effectiveness of interventions targeting nutrition, physical activity, or overweight/obesity in young adults, for which a predefined protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42017075795).