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 “Behavior change techniques are the tools that have emerged out of
decades-old research on behavior change which have shown some level
of effectiveness at helping people to modify their behavior,” said
David Conroy, the study’s lead researcher from Northwestern
University in Chicago.
The "app space" is "exploding,” Conroy said in a phone call. “There
are new apps coming out every week, even every day, and I think it
would be really hard to tell which one you want to use if you were a
consumer.”
More than half of American adults own smartphones - and half of
those owners use some type of fitness app, Conroy and colleagues
wrote in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
But, Conroy said, for the vast majority of these apps, there is no
research on their effectiveness. One way to start that evaluation
would be to look at what types of behavior-changing techniques the
apps use.
In November 2013, Conroy and colleagues identified the 100
top-selling health and fitness apps in the Apple iTunes and Google
Play marketplaces. Half were free; the other half were available for
a fee.
The researchers looked for any of 93 possible behavior-changing
techniques in the apps, including social support, instructions,
demonstration, feedback, goal settings, prompt and self-monitoring
of behavior.
Altogether, the apps used 39 behavior change techniques. Each app
had from one to 21 techniques, with an average around seven per app.
The study team discovered that apps generally fell into two
categories. About 48 percent focused on support and feedback through
social support, approval from others and feedback on behavior. The
other 52 percent offered support and education through social
support, approval from others, demonstrations and instructions.
“It seems like almost all of the apps now are trying to find ways to
help connect with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram,” Conroy said.
“They want people to have a social connection.”
The study shows that social media integration is pervasive, Conroy
said, even though there is only limited research showing social
media can positively affect behavior.
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The researchers only looked at what techniques were include with
each app, they did not test whether or not any of the apps were
effective in helping people become or stay more physically active.
Sherry Pagoto, a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts
Medical School in Worcester, said in a phone interview that the
range of behavior change strategies being used in health-related
mobile apps is narrow compared to what’s used in clinical practice.
“So I think (there's) just so much more room to grow when it comes
to these health apps,” said Pagoto, who wasn’t involved with the new
study. “They don't really seem to reflect the behavioral sciences
and what we know about behavior change.”
Pagoto said the good news is there are some evidence-based
strategies in some of these apps, but app developers could do more.
Conroy said that while some apps have more behavior change
techniques than others, none of them are silver bullets. They
shouldn’t replace the guidance of fitness and health professionals.
“A lot of these apps, it turns out, are kind of hollow,” he said,
adding they look nice and have many features, but no techniques to
motivate people who aren’t currently active.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1x1i0Id
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, online January 6, 2015.
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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