Mobile health apps

Murnane, Elizabeth L.; Huffaker, David A.; Kossinets, Gueorgi

doi:10.1145/2800835.2800943

Cited by 70 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Addressing users’ PA participation motives emerged as a further important aspect of engagement with PA apps. In line with previous research [13], most participants preferred features that focus on fitness, nutrition, and weight loss as these were the main reasons for engaging in PA. For instance, some participants were strictly interested in suggestions about how to lose weight and wanted to track relevant parameters (eg, weight loss and calorie intake). Although intrinsic exercise motives, relative to more controlled ones (eg, body-related motives), have been shown to be positively associated with PA [36], some forms of less autonomous regulation (eg, identification with the outcomes of PA) are expected to regulate short-term behavior [37] and constitute an important motivational component of exercise [38].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…For example, it has been estimated that 26% of commercially available health and fitness apps are downloaded and used only once by each user and that 74% of such apps are abandoned after their tenth use [12]. The most frequently reported reasons why users abandon health apps include a lack of desired features and having abandoned one’s health goal [13]. As results from a meta-analysis of PA internet-delivered interventions found a negative relationship between early attrition and intervention effectiveness, researchers have argued that it is important to promote sustained engagement with digital PA interventions [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring Users’ Experiences of the Uptake and Adoption of Physical Activity Apps: Longitudinal Qualitative Study

Baretta

Perski

Steca

2019

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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Background Although smartphone apps might support physical activity (PA), engagement with them tends to be low. Objective This study aimed to examine potential users’ needs and preferences regarding their engagement with PA apps during a first exposure to a never-used PA app and after 2 weeks’ usage. Methods A longitudinal, one-arm qualitative study was conducted with potential PA app users. At baseline, participants (N=20) were asked to explore 1 of 3 randomly allocated PA apps while thinking aloud. Semistructured interview techniques allowed participants to elaborate on their statements. After 2 weeks, follow-up interviews explored participants’ (n=17) lived experiences of real-world app use. Verbal reports from both time points were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Results Features that promote a fair and simple user experience, support users’ self-regulation skills, and address users’ exercise motives were considered important for engagement both during a first exposure and after a 2-week use of PA apps. Features that support users’ need for relatedness as well as those that facilitate users to implement their intentions were expected to be important for engagement mainly during a first exposure to PA apps. Proactive and tailored features that integrate behavioral, psychological, and contextual information to provide adaptive exercise plans and just-in-time support were considered relevant to sustain engagement over time. Conclusions App features that address users’ exercise motives, promote self-regulation, and fulfill users’ need for relatedness might promote engagement with PA apps. Tailored and proactive features were expected to promote sustained engagement.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Users’ Experiences of the Uptake and Adoption of Physical Activity Apps: Longitudinal Qualitative Study

Baretta

Perski

Steca

2019

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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“…Achieving these goals, or at least displaying a performance level that could lead to achieving previously-set goals, can provide a further boost to initial motivation and perceived self-efficacy, increasing the chances of sustained tracker use. However, the fulfilment of a set goal may also lead to device abandonment, because users feel they no longer need the tracker [43]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants for Sustained Use of an Activity Tracker: Observational Study

Hermsen

Moons

Kerkhof

et al. 2017

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

136

100

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BackgroundA lack of physical activity is considered to cause 6% of deaths globally. Feedback from wearables such as activity trackers has the potential to encourage daily physical activity. To date, little research is available on the natural development of adherence to activity trackers or on potential factors that predict which users manage to keep using their activity tracker during the first year (and thereby increasing the chance of healthy behavior change) and which users discontinue using their trackers after a short time.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to identify the determinants for sustained use in the first year after purchase. Specifically, we look at the relative importance of demographic and socioeconomic, psychological, health-related, goal-related, technological, user experience–related, and social predictors of feedback device use. Furthermore, this study tests the effect of these predictors on physical activity.MethodsA total of 711 participants from four urban areas in France received an activity tracker (Fitbit Zip) and gave permission to use their logged data. Participants filled out three Web-based questionnaires: at start, after 98 days, and after 232 days to measure the aforementioned determinants. Furthermore, for each participant, we collected activity data tracked by their Fitbit tracker for 320 days. We determined the relative importance of all included predictors by using Random Forest, a machine learning analysis technique.ResultsThe data showed a slow exponential decay in Fitbit use, with 73.9% (526/711) of participants still tracking after 100 days and 16.0% (114/711) of participants tracking after 320 days. On average, participants used the tracker for 129 days. Most important reasons to quit tracking were technical issues such as empty batteries and broken trackers or lost trackers (21.5% of all Q3 respondents, 130/601). Random Forest analysis of predictors revealed that the most influential determinants were age, user experience–related factors, mobile phone type, household type, perceived effect of the Fitbit tracker, and goal-related factors. We explore the role of those predictors that show meaningful differences in the number of days the tracker was worn.ConclusionsThis study offers an overview of the natural development of the use of an activity tracker, as well as the relative importance of a range of determinants from literature. Decay is exponential but slower than may be expected from existing literature. Many factors have a small contribution to sustained use. The most important determinants are technical condition, age, user experience, and goal-related factors. This finding suggests that activity tracking is potentially beneficial for a broad range of target groups, but more attention should be paid to technical and user experience–related aspects of activity trackers.

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“…The preference of a smartphone app over a website or paper diary has been the result of a study conducted by Carter et al [5] where just users of the smartphone app still recorded their daily nutrition intake after six months. To get an impression of features offered by popular smartphone apps, we refer to a survey of nutrient-related mobile apps by Franco et al [10] and an overview of related health apps by Murnane et al [20].…”

Section: Smartphone and Smartwatch Appsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They gathered a variety of issues by compiling the results of a survey of 141 current and lapsed food journaling persons and additionally collecting posts from the community forums of three mobile food journals. Furthermore, we considered the overviews of nutrient-related mobile apps by Franco et al [10] and health apps by Murnane et al [20].…”

Section: Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a mobile multi-device nutrition logger

Seiderer

Flutura

André

2017

Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGCHI International Workshop on Multisensory Approaches to Human-Food Interaction

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In this paper we present a mobile system for nutrition logging which integrates multiple devices and modalities to facilitate food and drink tracking. The user is free to decide in each situation to use the most appropriate device combination out of a smartphone, smartwatch and smartscale. We describe the design and implementation of our system which is based on a requirements analysis. Finally, first results of a preliminary in-situ study with the prototype are reported giving first hints about the benefits and challenges of this multi-device approach in daily life scenarios.

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Mobile health apps

Cited by 70 publications

References 2 publications

Exploring Users’ Experiences of the Uptake and Adoption of Physical Activity Apps: Longitudinal Qualitative Study

Exploring Users’ Experiences of the Uptake and Adoption of Physical Activity Apps: Longitudinal Qualitative Study

Determinants for Sustained Use of an Activity Tracker: Observational Study

Development of a mobile multi-device nutrition logger

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