Health behavior models in the age of mobile interventions: are our theories up to the task? (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Background: Recent advances in mobile and wearable technologies have led to new forms of interventions, called “Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions” (JITAI). JITAIs interact with the individual at the most appropriate time and provide the most appropriate support depending on the continuously acquired Intensive Longitudinal Data (ILD) on participant physiology, behavior, and contexts. These advances raise an important question: How do we model these data to better understand and intervene on health behaviors? The HeartSteps II study, described here, is a Micro-Randomized Trial (MRT) intended to advance both intervention development and theory-building enabled by the new generation of mobile and wearable technology. Methods: The study involves a year-long deployment of HeartSteps, a JITAI for physical activity and sedentary behavior, with 96 sedentary, overweight, but otherwise healthy adults. The central purpose is twofold: (1) to support the development of modeling approaches for o...
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BMC Public Health
Background Changing lifestyle patterns over the last decades have seen growing numbers of people in Asia affected by non-communicable diseases and common mental health disorders, including diabetes, cancer, and/or depression. Interventions targeting healthy lifestyle behaviours through mobile technologies, including new approaches such as chatbots, may be an effective, low-cost approach to prevent these conditions. To ensure uptake and engagement with mobile health interventions, however, it is essential to understand the end-users’ perspectives on using such interventions. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions, barriers, and facilitators to the use of mobile health interventions for lifestyle behaviour change in Singapore. Methods Six virtual focus group discussions were conducted with a total of 34 participants (mean ± SD; aged 45 ± 3.6 years; 64.7% females). Focus group recordings were transcribed verbatim and analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach, fol...
Mobile Health Development – The Need For a Rigorous Approach
The European health psychologist, 2016
growth of mobile health (mHealth) apps have converted smartphones into tools for medical education and functions (e.g. medical reference apps, clinical decision support apps), selfmanagement of chronic conditions (e.g. diabetes apps) and especially, health promotion (e.g. weight loss apps). With regards to their development, there is growing consensus that mHealth interventions should be based on evidence, behaviour change theory and formative research with the target population (Buller et al. , 2013; Whittaker, Merry, Dorey & Maddison, 2012; Stroulia et al. , 2013; Fjeldsoe, Miller, O'Brien & Marshall, 2012). Moreover, underpinning interventions with theory is a key recommendation of the UK Medical Research Council’s framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions (Craig et al. , 2008). Indeed, behaviour change is central to advancing ‘implementation of evidence based practice and public health’, where ‘Behaviour change interventions’ are defined as ‘coordinated s...