Abstract
The epidemic of physical inactivity is a major health hazard in the modern society, therefore creating effective and innovative health programs and interventions is important. This paper presents a novel approach in which person-to-person social support is incorporated in mHealth interventions for increasing physical activity. Social support is already used as a behaviour change technique in mHealth apps for influencing physical activity, but mostly offered virtually. While virtually-offered social support is efficient, we believe that person-to-person communication, based on personal coaching, might open a new way of influencing the inactive users and their motivation. Responding to this, we developed an Android application that facilitates physically inactive users to connect with a real life coach to receive person-to-person social support. This paper explains the motivation behind the system’s design decisions and discusses the potential of social support in mHeatlh apps. In addition, we present the design of the evaluation study in which the hypotheses and research questions will be evaluated.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | HEALTHINF 2018 - 11th International Conference on Health Informatics, Proceedings; Part of 11th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2018 |
| Publisher | SciTePress |
| Pages | 497-504 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Volume | 5 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9789897582813 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2018 |
| Event | 11th International Conference on Health Informatics, HEALTHINF 2018 - Part of 11th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2018 - Funchal, Madeira, Portugal Duration: 19 Jan 2018 → 21 Jan 2018 |
Conference
| Conference | 11th International Conference on Health Informatics, HEALTHINF 2018 - Part of 11th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2018 |
|---|---|
| Country | Portugal |
| City | Funchal, Madeira |
| Period | 19/01/18 → 21/01/18 |
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Keywords
- Mobile Health
- Physical Activity
- Social Support
Cite this
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Integrating person-to-person social support in smartphone apps for promoting physical activity. / Simoski, Bojan; Klein, Michel; Van Halteren, Aart T.; Bal, Henri.
HEALTHINF 2018 - 11th International Conference on Health Informatics, Proceedings; Part of 11th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2018. Vol. 5 SciTePress, 2018. p. 497-504.Research output: Chapter in Book / Report / Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review
TY - GEN
T1 - Integrating person-to-person social support in smartphone apps for promoting physical activity
AU - Simoski, Bojan
AU - Klein, Michel
AU - Van Halteren, Aart T.
AU - Bal, Henri
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - The epidemic of physical inactivity is a major health hazard in the modern society, therefore creating effective and innovative health programs and interventions is important. This paper presents a novel approach in which person-to-person social support is incorporated in mHealth interventions for increasing physical activity. Social support is already used as a behaviour change technique in mHealth apps for influencing physical activity, but mostly offered virtually. While virtually-offered social support is efficient, we believe that person-to-person communication, based on personal coaching, might open a new way of influencing the inactive users and their motivation. Responding to this, we developed an Android application that facilitates physically inactive users to connect with a real life coach to receive person-to-person social support. This paper explains the motivation behind the system’s design decisions and discusses the potential of social support in mHeatlh apps. In addition, we present the design of the evaluation study in which the hypotheses and research questions will be evaluated.
AB - The epidemic of physical inactivity is a major health hazard in the modern society, therefore creating effective and innovative health programs and interventions is important. This paper presents a novel approach in which person-to-person social support is incorporated in mHealth interventions for increasing physical activity. Social support is already used as a behaviour change technique in mHealth apps for influencing physical activity, but mostly offered virtually. While virtually-offered social support is efficient, we believe that person-to-person communication, based on personal coaching, might open a new way of influencing the inactive users and their motivation. Responding to this, we developed an Android application that facilitates physically inactive users to connect with a real life coach to receive person-to-person social support. This paper explains the motivation behind the system’s design decisions and discusses the potential of social support in mHeatlh apps. In addition, we present the design of the evaluation study in which the hypotheses and research questions will be evaluated.
KW - Mobile Health
KW - Physical Activity
KW - Social Support
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85051735080&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85051735080&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5220/0006644504970504
DO - 10.5220/0006644504970504
M3 - Conference contribution
VL - 5
SP - 497
EP - 504
BT - HEALTHINF 2018 - 11th International Conference on Health Informatics, Proceedings; Part of 11th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2018
PB - SciTePress
ER -