Digital interventions to foster resilience in working populations – a systematic review and meta-analysis

At workplaces, people encounter multiple stressors, necessitating resilient responses. Digital resilience interventions – delivered via websites or smartphones – represent a promising measure to empower people at their workplaces, but their potential has not been extensively investigated yet. We searched five databases for randomised-controlled trials of digital resilience interventions in working populations, identifying 34 studies comprising 5,318 individuals. Meta-analyses found small beneficial effects at post-intervention for work engagement (SMD = 0.25, [0.15, 0.34]), mental distress (SMD = –0.27, 95% CI [–0.40, –0.14]), and positive mental health (SMD = 0.25, [0.15, 0.36]; all p < .001), while effects on burnout were small and non-significant (SMD = –0.25, [–0.59, 0.09], p = .142). At follow-up, favourable effects partly diminished over time, with positive mental health and mental distress remaining significant, and work engagement showing a small, non-significant trend (p = .070). We suggest that sustainable improvements in work-related outcomes (e.g. work engagement and burnout) in working populations may require combining individual-centered and structural prevention. Notably, most studies included assessed general rather than work-related outcomes, resulting in low power for some analyses and highlighting an important research gap.