The Effect of Timing and Frequency of Push Notifications on Usage of a Smartphone-Based Stress Management Intervention: An Exploratory Trial

Abstract

Push notifications offer a promising strategy for enhancing engagement with smartphone-based health interventions. Intelligent sensor-driven machine learning models may improve the timeliness of notifications by adapting delivery to a user’s current context (e.g. location). This exploratory mixed-methods study examined the potential impact of timing and frequency on notification response and usage of Healthy Mind, a smartphone-based stress management intervention. 77 participants were randomised to use one of three versions of Healthy Mind that provided: intelligent notifications; daily notifications within pre-defined time frames; or occasional notifications within pre-defined time frames. Notification response and Healthy Mind usage were automatically recorded. Telephone interviews explored participants’ experiences of using Healthy Mind. Participants in the intelligent and daily conditions viewed (d = .47, .44 respectively) and actioned (d = .50, .43 respectively) more notifications compared to the occasional group. Notification group had no meaningful effects on percentage of notifications viewed or usage of Healthy Mind. No meaningful differences were indicated between the intelligent and non-intelligent groups. Our findings suggest that frequent notifications may encourage greater exposure to intervention content without deterring engagement, but adaptive tailoring of notification timing does not always enhance their use. Hypotheses generated from this study require testing in future work.Trial registration number: ISRCTN67177737

Snow White Is Missing: An Interactive Locative Story for Dementia Patients

“…As mobile technology with location sensors, particularly smartphones, becomes more prevalent this form of entertainment reaches a broader audience. A similar trend can be observed in digital Behaviour Change Interventions (dBCIs) [15]. These are programs of activities and supporting materials constructed by behaviour change scientists to elicit positive behaviour change in participants such as losing weight or stopping smoking.…”

Unobstrusive mobile monitoring of well-being of ambulatory patients in palliative care: what can remote data tell us?

“…However, none of the work included in our literature research involves wearable sensing technologies. In contrast, in other fields, wearables like smart-phones are used as a sensor platform to investigate human behavior [8], stress [9] and to support patients with mental diseases, e.g., schizophrenia [10], [11] and depression [12].…”

Efficacy of mobile context-aware notification management systems: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis

“…This unstructured search resulted in a first overview of the field of interruptibility and we learned that the papers of interest were predominantly technical in the field of CNMSs with some papers having a health (e.g. [22], [19]) or psychological (e.g. [23]) background.…”

“…In order to address these goals, we conducted a systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Consistent with prior work [18], [19], several efficacy metrics were applied. Particularly, response rate, i.e.…”

“…the number of notifications a user has processed divided by the total number of notifications sent out [18], and response delay, i.e. the time between a notification has been sent and was processed by the user [19], were used as objective efficacy metrics. Next, we describe our systematic literature review including the search strategy, study selection procedure, and details about the meta analysis and risk bias assessment.…”