Social media and applications to health behavior

Maher, Carol; Ryan, Jillian; Kernot, Jocelyn; Podsiadly, James; Keenihan, Sarah Hudson

doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.10.021

Cited by 53 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Interventions delivered via online social networking platforms can achieve excellent reach to large groups of people, relatively free from geographical restraints. Additionally, such interventions reflect the ways in which people use internet technology more broadly to connect with friends, which may lead to an enhanced uptake of the target behaviour and provide conditions associated with behaviour change, such as social support, visibility and friendly competition [4,5].…”

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confidence: 99%

Engagement, compliance and retention with a gamified online social networking physical activity intervention

Ryan

Edney

Maher

2017

Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res.

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Health behaviour interventions delivered via online social networks are an increasingly popular approach to addressing lifestyle-related health problems. However, research to date consistently reports poor user engagement and retention. The current study examined user engagement, compliance and retention with Active Team-a gamified physical activity intervention delivered by via an online Facebook application. Associations between engagement and participant (n = 51) demographic and team characteristics (sex, age, education and team size) were examined, as well as temporal trends in engagement during the 50-day intervention. Analyses revealed significant associations between both engagement (p = <0.001) and gamification (p = 0.04) with education, with participants in the middle education category appearing to have the highest rates of engagement and use of gamification features. Gender was also related to engagement, with males demonstrating the highest use of the intervention's gamification features (p = 0.004). Although compliance was consistently high for the duration, engagement declined steadily throughout the intervention. Engagement peaked on Wednesdays, coinciding with the delivery of a customised email reminder. Findings reveal individual differences in engagement with Active Team, highlighting a need to tailor interventions to the target audience. Gamification features may enhance engagement amongst males, who are traditionally recognised as a difficult demographic group to engage. Finally, the use of customised, periodic push reminders delivered by email may enhance user engagement by drawing them back to the intervention and helping to sustain intervention behaviours.

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confidence: 99%

Engagement, compliance and retention with a gamified online social networking physical activity intervention

Ryan

Edney

Maher

2017

Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res.

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“…There were no significant differences between groups in age, BMI, gender, ethnicity, education, or marital status. This seems to align with previous research on effective Facebook messaging as well (CDC, 2012;Maher, Ryan, Kernot, Podsiadly, & Keenihan, 2015;. However, at the end of the study, researchers asked users to rate postings in order of most to least preferred; participants rated news and recipes as their most preferred message followed by polling and then suggestions.…”

Section: Impact Of Social Mediasupporting

confidence: 72%

#Physical Activity: Influencing Parent Behavior Change Through Social Media

Keath¹

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Background: Parents play a major role in supporting physical activity in and around the home, creating a home environment that encourages physical activity as well as participation in activity with their children and supporting children's physically active lifestyles are important areas of concern for health promotion. Despite support for family-based interventions, there is still little evidence to demonstrate the most effective ways of targeting families with physical activity interventions. Social media has been one area of promise for connecting with parent participants in physical activity interventions. Sites like Facebook have an existing high prevalence of parent users and offer media-rich tools in a socially connected digital environment that are suited for connecting with parents. The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of a social media physical activity intervention could enhance physical activity behavior change in parents. Additionally, this study sought to discover if the level of parent engagement in the social media group influenced their behavior change-related outcomes, within the same intervention. Methods: Parent participants in this study were randomized at the school level as part of a larger physical activity intervention consisting of three different experimental conditions (Control, School, Family). Participants in the family intervention received a nineteen-week strategic messaging campaign delivered through a Facebook group in addition to existing family intervention components. Strategic messaging consisted of core messaging related to parent education as well as dedicated behavior change messaging targeting parents specific to their existing stage of change. Parent completed pre/post survey instruments to evaluate family health behaviors ((Family Health Climate (FHC), Stage of Change (SOC), Parent Support for Physical Activity (PSPA) and Physical Activity (PA) levels) and attitudes in an existing family-based physical activity intervention. Additional data were collected on interaction in the Facebook group to determine parents engagement level with Facebook content. Results: A total of 84 parents were included in the analysis control n = 42 and family n = 42. A repeated measures MANOVA was used to determine if there were significant differences between groups by time. Overall Pillai's trace was statistically significant for time*group F (8, 75) = 2.866, p = .008, partial η 2 = .234. Follow-up univariate ANOVA's were performed to determine which of the study variables across time points had significant mean differences, Family health climate p < .02, parent support p < .004, self-efficacy p < .034 all had significant mean differences between times and groups. No other study variables were significantly different. Pairwise comparisons showed significant mean improvements for family intervention participants in Family health climate (m = 4.972, p < .017) and parent support (m = 7.69, p < .005). Conclusion: Results indicate that strategic messaging campaigns delivered thro...

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“…With high levels of consumption and sustained engagement, social media opens up venues for introducing online interventions that affect health behaviors. 5 The popularity of Facebook has facilitated many health behavior research studies in different populations with varying demographic characteristics and on a wide range of health behaviors, including weight loss, [6][7][8][9][10] physical activity, [11][12][13][14][15][16] and smoking cessation. 15 This medium allows for research to be conducted in private groups via polls or through apps on the platform.…”

Section: The Functional Evolution Of the Internetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Patient Involvement in the Drug Development Process: Case Study of Potential Applications from an Online Peer Support Network

Anand

Brandwood

Evans

2017

Clinical Therapeutics

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To date, social media has been used predominantly by the pharmaceutical industry to market products and to gather feedback and comments on products from consumers, a process termed social listening. However, social media has only been used cautiously in the drug development cycle, mainly because of regulations, restrictions on engagement with patients, or a lack of guidelines for social media use from regulatory bodies. Despite this cautious approach, there is a clear drive, from both the industry and consumers, for increased patient participation in various stages of the drug development process. The authors use the example of HealthUnlocked, one of the world's largest health networks, to illustrate the potential applications of online health communities as a means of increasing patient involvement at various stages of the drug development process. Having identified the willingness of the user population to be involved in research, numerous ways to engage users on the platform have been identified and explored. This commentary describes some of these approaches and reports how online health networks that encourage people to share their experiences in managing their health can, in turn, enable rapid patient engagement for clinical research within the constraints of industry regulation.

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Social media and applications to health behavior

Cited by 53 publications

References 45 publications

Engagement, compliance and retention with a gamified online social networking physical activity intervention

Engagement, compliance and retention with a gamified online social networking physical activity intervention

#Physical Activity: Influencing Parent Behavior Change Through Social Media

Improving Patient Involvement in the Drug Development Process: Case Study of Potential Applications from an Online Peer Support Network

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