Time to Work Out! Examining the Behavior Change Techniques and Relevant Theoretical Mechanisms that Predict the Popularity of Fitness Mobile Apps with Chinese-Language User Interfaces

Abstract

Eyeing the huge potential mHealth market in China, developers both inside and outside of China have created an increasing number of fitness mobile applications with Chinese-language user interfaces. The present study analyzes the content of those fitness mobile apps (N = 177), with a particular focus on their behavior change techniques and relevant theoretical mechanisms. It finds that three theoretical mechanisms, modeling/observational learning, self-regulation, and social comparison/social support, are prevalent among fitness mobile apps with Chinese-language user interfaces. Moreover, based on the configurations of the behavior change techniques, three distinct clusters are identified: "instructional apps" (N = 75), "self-regulation apps" (N = 58), and "triathlon apps" (N = 44). Among them, "triathlon apps" equipped with technical features reflecting all three theoretical mechanisms are found to be the most popular among users. This suggests the usefulness of health behavior change theories in promoting physical activity via mobile apps in that the inclusion of more theoretical content in the app design enhances the app's effectiveness. More theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Internet-Based Approaches to Designing an Online Fitness Platform

“…Chinese fitness companies are in the initial development stage, but still, there are huge opportunities for growth. With the advent of the latest technologies such as mobile Internet, online fitness applications changed human life [ 2 , 3 , 5 , 17 , 18 ].…”

“…The final result represents the total number of watched videos. The ratio of similarity can be obtained by dividing the intersection value by the total number [ 4 , 12 , 18 ].…”

“…e final result represents the total number of watched videos. e ratio of similarity can be obtained by dividing the intersection value by the total number [4,12,18]. Normally obtained parameters in (1) are only the similarity between video, also not the probability of final user's viewing video.…”

Uncovering the Heterogeneity in Fitness App Use: A Latent Class Analysis of Chinese Users

“…Findings yielded by these investigations indicate that psychological needs (e.g., entertainment, relaxation, information seeking) and social gratifications (e.g., interpersonal bonding, status seeking) are the primary motivations underlying engagement with social media [ 28 , 29 ]. In the context of mobile fitness apps, however, gratifications tend to be examined in light of their affordances [ 30 , 31 , 32 ]. Following this practice in the present study, based on the major functions of fitness apps, we classified the platform-based motivations into five categories, denoted as exercise, comparison, social, financial, and charity motivations.…”

Gambling Prevention Mobile Applications: Understanding the Inclusion and Use of Behaviour Change Techniques

“…In 2020, it was estimated that 3.5 billion people owned a mobile phone (Statista, 2021). Among the many benefits of mobile health, mobile devices are easily portable (Klasnja & Pratt, 2012), can have significant reach (Milward et al, 2015), and are less reliant on face-to-face communication (Huang & Zhou, 2019). They therefore provide an ideal opportunity to change behaviours associated with health (Walsh & Groarke, 2019).…”