Previously submitted to: JMIR mHealth and uHealth (no longer under consideration since Apr 23, 2021)
Date Submitted: Oct 25, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
A systematic review on usability of smart devices and mobile health application for monitoring physical activity and weight management
ABSTRACT
Background:
Decreased engagement in physical activities and obesity are global public health problems of modern age. At the same time, m-health interventions were introduced to support monitoring of physical activities to enhance weight control through self-management. There is lack of updated systematic review of studies on the usability, effectiveness and user satisfaction of these smart devices applications.
Objective:
This systematic review aims at synthesizing latest research findings about effectiveness of mobile applications in physical activity and weight management, and the level of usability and user satisfaction.
Methods:
Data was collected from four databases including IEEE, Scopus, Cochrane and PubMed. The inclusion criterion includes original research published between 2008-2018 focusing on the use of smart devices in physical activity and the significance of mobile-based applications in influencing user involvement in physical activities and weight management
Results:
We retrieved 2,553 published studies from the databases out of which (n=15) meet inclusion/exclusion criterion of this systematic review. Analysis of study findings revealed user’s perceptions regarding effectiveness, usability and acceptance of mobile-based apps associate with increased involvement in physical activities and weight management practices. Studies demonstrated factors such as social support, reinforcement and goal setting enhance self-monitoring and users’ motivation to gain new skills of engagement in physical activities and weight self-management.
Conclusions:
This review validates the effectiveness of m-interventions for engagement in physical activities and weight self-management. Smartphones and devices features have been instrumental in monitoring physical activity with additional components such as social support, social connections, feedback, goal setting and tracking activity Clinical Trial: null
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