Development of a Web-Based and Mobile App to Support Physical Activity in Individuals With Rheumatoid Arthritis: Results From the Second Step of a Co-Design Process

Abstract

BackgroundLong-term adherence to physical activity recommendations remains challenging for most individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) despite evidence for its health benefits.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to provide basic data on system requirement specifications for a Web-based and mobile app to self-manage physical activity. More specifically, we explored the target user group, features of the future app, and correlations between the system requirements and the established behavior change techniques (BCTs).MethodsWe used a participatory action research design. Qualitative data were collected using multiple methods in four workshops. Participants were 5 individuals with RA, a clinical physiotherapist, an officer from the Swedish Rheumatism Association, a Web designer, and 2 physiotherapy researchers. A taxonomy was used to determine the degree of correlation between the system requirements and established BCTs.ResultsParticipants agreed that the future Web-based and mobile app should be based on two major components important for maintaining physical activity: (1) a calendar feature for goal setting, planning, and recording of physical activity performance and progress, and (2) a small community feature for positive feedback and support from peers. All system requirements correlated with established BCTs, which were coded as 24 different BCTs.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this study is the first to involve individuals with RA as co-designers, in collaboration with clinicians, researchers, and Web designers, to produce basic data to generate system requirement specifications for an eHealth service. The system requirements correlated to the BCTs, making specifications of content and future evaluation of effectiveness possible.

Supporting the Process of Help-Seeking by Caregivers of Functionally Dependent Seniors Through eHealth: Protocol for a Multicentric Codesign (Preprint)

“…The data were obtained from: 1) notes taken by the team [38]; 2) artifacts produced by each group; and 3) notes taken after the working sessions via a meeting with the research team to share their impressions [36]. The codesign sessions and those of the advisory committee will be filmed, if necessary, to further develop certain aspects of other methods of data collection.…”

A Universally Designed and Usable Data Visualization for A Mobile Application in the Context of Rheumatoid Arthritis

“…More recently some other researchers have done work on a mobile app for rheumatoid arthritis [24,25,26]. In [24] the authors aimed to find out about requirements specifications for the app and the user group and desired features of the app.…”

Enhancing physical activity using virtual communities

“…Different methodologies have been used to define these functionalities: requirements elicitation through prototypes tested with real users [60][61][62], requirements elicitation through participatory action research design involving different stakeholders (end users, caregivers, designers and researchers) [63] and requirements elicitation through leveraging a systematic design framework from existing theories and concepts [64,65].…”

“…Taking into account the results from these studies [60][61][62][63][64][65] and our interest in telemedicine applications using virtual communities for PA support, we propose the following categories, with examples of functions in each category:…”

“…Related design studies for PA support systems focus on a specific target group (e.g., gender-specific [71], condition-specific such as rheumatoid arthritis [63], or applicationspecific [60]). To our knowledge, there is no research providing a generic framework for PA support system, in which categories of functions are suggested.…”