Health Behavior Theory in Popular Calorie Counting Apps: A Content Analysis

Davis, Siena F.; Ellsworth, Marisa A; Payne, Hannah; Hall, Shelby M; West, Joshua H.; Nordhagen, Amber L

doi:10.2196/mhealth.4177

Cited by 24 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The medical and public health literature includes studies on nutrition, diabetes management, calorie-counting, or weight-loss apps. Several of these studies have focused on features of food-tracking apps' content such as their accuracy, usability, and accountability [25]; whether they conform to evidence-informed practices [26] or incorporate expert medical or nutritional knowledge [27,28]; or psychological models of behaviour [29]. Another group of studies has directed attention to how food-tracking apps are used, focusing on elements such as whether they contribute to eating disorders [30,31], and their efficacy in weight-loss efforts [32] and diabetes management [33].…”

Section: Previous Research On Food-tracking Appsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I Just Want It to Be Done, Done, Done!’ Food Tracking Apps, Affects, and Agential Capacities

Lupton

2018

MTI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Food-tracking apps constitute a major category of the thousands of food-related apps now available. They are promoted as helping users monitor and measure their food consumption to improve their health or to lose weight. In this article, I present six vignettes drawn from interviews with Australian women about their use and non-use of food-tracking apps. The vignettes provide detailed insights into the experiences of these women and their broader sociocultural and biographical contexts. The analysis is based on feminist materialism theoretical perspectives, seeking to identify the relational connections, affective forces, and agential capacities generated in and through the human-app assemblage. The vignettes reveal that affective forces related to the desire to control and manage the body and conform to norms and ideals about good health and body weight inspire people to try food-tracking apps. However, the agential capacities promised by app developers may not be generated even when people have committed hope and effort in using the app. Frustration, disappointment, the fear of becoming too controlled, and annoyance or guilt evoked by the demands of the app can be barriers to continued and successful use. Sociocultural and biographical contexts and relational connections are also central to the capacities of human-app assemblages. Women's ambivalences about using apps as part of efforts to control their body weight are sited within their struggles to conform to accepted ideals of physical appearance but also their awareness that these struggles may be too limiting of their agency. This analysis, therefore, draws attention to what a body can and cannot do as it comes together with food tracking apps.

show abstract

Section: Previous Research On Food-tracking Appsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I Just Want It to Be Done, Done, Done!’ Food Tracking Apps, Affects, and Agential Capacities

Lupton

2018

MTI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The value of theory is dependent on using a high quality and appropriate theory that is relevant to the behavior [ 15 ]. Furthermore, the way theory has been used and reported is generally inadequate; many studies do not report theory use in intervention development or evaluation [ 23 , 30 , 33 - 36 ]. If interventions are described as having a theoretical basis, this description is often unclear or not extensive [ 24 , 29 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reported Theory Use by Digital Interventions for Hazardous and Harmful Alcohol Consumption, and Association With Effectiveness: Meta-Regression

Garnett¹,

Crane²,

Brown³

et al. 2018

J Med Internet Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundApplying theory to the design and evaluation of interventions is likely to increase effectiveness and improve the evidence base from which future interventions are developed, though few interventions report this.ObjectiveThe aim of this paper was to assess how digital interventions to reduce hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption report the use of theory in their development and evaluation, and whether reporting of theory use is associated with intervention effectiveness.MethodsRandomized controlled trials were extracted from a Cochrane review on digital interventions for reducing hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption. Reporting of theory use within these digital interventions was investigated using the theory coding scheme (TCS). Reported theory use was analyzed by frequency counts and descriptive statistics. Associations were analyzed with meta-regression models.ResultsOf 41 trials involving 42 comparisons, half did not mention theory (50% [21/42]), and only 38% (16/42) used theory to select or develop the intervention techniques. Significant heterogeneity existed between studies in the effect of interventions on alcohol reduction (I2=77.6%, P<.001). No significant associations were detected between reporting of theory use and intervention effectiveness in unadjusted models, though the meta-regression was underpowered to detect modest associations.ConclusionsDigital interventions offer a unique opportunity to refine and develop new dynamic, temporally sensitive theories, yet none of the studies reported refining or developing theory. Clearer selection, application, and reporting of theory use is needed to accurately assess how useful theory is in this field and to advance the field of behavior change theories.

show abstract

“…First of all, is it effective? The lack of health behavior theory [18] integration suggests a high chance for lack of efficacy [19]. More seriously, studies have found that apps can lead to obsessive behavior resulting in deterioration of the users' health [20].…”

Section: Literature Review Mhealth For Patient Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile health applications in rheumatology: Could they improve our care and research?

Mp¹,

Yuminaga²,

R³

2019

Int. J. Clin. Rheumatol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With>165,000 mobile health apps available on iTunes and Google Play mHealth is a rapidly growing field, which generated high expectations for the improvement of our health care. We identify two uses for mHealth in the field of rheumatology: A) aiding patient care and B) the systematic collection of data for scientific research. Currently, there is still a lack of evidence that mHealth will live up to the high promises. In this review we discuss the pros and cons of mHealth and the research that is needed to develop and validate mHealth to ensure high quality apps.

show abstract

Health Behavior Theory in Popular Calorie Counting Apps: A Content Analysis

Cited by 24 publications

References 7 publications

‘I Just Want It to Be Done, Done, Done!’ Food Tracking Apps, Affects, and Agential Capacities

‘I Just Want It to Be Done, Done, Done!’ Food Tracking Apps, Affects, and Agential Capacities

Reported Theory Use by Digital Interventions for Hazardous and Harmful Alcohol Consumption, and Association With Effectiveness: Meta-Regression

Mobile health applications in rheumatology: Could they improve our care and research?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About