Do Fitness Apps Need Text Reminders? An Experiment Testing Goal-Setting Text Message Reminders to Promote Self-Monitoring

Abstract

Fitness tracking apps have the potential to change unhealthy lifestyles, but users' lack of compliance is an issue. The current intervention examined the effectiveness of using goal-setting theory-based text message reminders to promote tracking activities on fitness apps. We conducted a 2-week experiment with pre- and post-tests with young adults (n = 50). Participants were randomly assigned to two groups-a goal-setting text message reminder group and a generic text message reminder group. Participants were asked to use a fitness tracking app to log physical activity and diet for the duration of the study. Participants who received goal-setting reminders logged significantly more physical activities than those who only received generic reminders. Further, participants who received goal-setting reminders liked the messages and showed significantly increased self-efficacy, awareness of personal goals, motivation, and intention to use the app. The study shows that incorporating goal-setting theory-based text message reminders can be useful to boost user compliance with self-monitoring fitness apps by reinforcing users' personal goals and enhancing cognitive factors associated with health behavior change.

Is Burden Always Bad? Emerging Low-Burden Approaches to Mobile Dietary Self-monitoring and the Role Burden Plays with Engagement

“…Studies have examined both automated reminders, such as those based on time of day (e.g., a reminder to self-monitor lunch around 12:30 pm) (Hales et al, 2016a, b) and the ability to have user-set reminders (Pagoto et al, 2018). Having reminder messages be goal-focused versus just a standard reminder to self-monitor, may also improve adherence (Liu & Willoughby, 2018). Future studies may wish to examine what types of prompts are most effective for enhancing regular self-monitoring, in addition to the timing of prompts and delivery methods.…”

Factors That Influence the Use of Electronic Diaries in Health Care: Scoping Review

“…The CFIR [25] was used to perform the qualitative thematic analysis of the factors that influence the use of electronic diaries in health care. The results of this qualitative thematic analysis were organized along 3 CFIR categories: intervention [29][30][31][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49], user characteristics [28,32,36,37,39,41,42,44,45,49], and process [30][31][32][33]38,41,[43][44][45]47,49]. No results were found for the 2 other CFIR categories: inner setting and outer setting.…”

“…The first theme, "content," refers to the information in an electronic diary. Smartphone applications and web-based modules consisted of several content types like EMA, reminders, and reward messages [33,40,45,[47][48][49]. This content supports communication between the patient and the health care professional.…”

“…The third theme, "functionalities," refers to the activities that a user can perform within an application, ranging from procedures for recording and uploading data to customization of the user interface. Telephone or email reminders, either programmable or automated, notify the user to complete a questionnaire, which increases the completion rate [29][30][31]33,37,39,42,44,[46][47][48]. Furthermore, manually entering several indicators per day increases participant burden [40][41][42]45,49].…”

Effects of Mobile Health Prompts on Self-Monitoring and Exercise Behaviors Following a Diabetes Prevention Program: Secondary Analysis From a Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Furthermore, research has suggested that self-monitoring and adherence to PA goals may be bolstered through the use of personalized prompts or feedback [20]. Specifically, 1 study found that individuals who received personalized goal setting prompts logged significantly more PA than their counterparts who received generic prompts [21].…”