JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Social media and social networking sites are widely used to provide virtual social support to encourage physical activity. A better understanding of how they are used could improve intervention efforts.

Objective:

We aimed to describe the social support patterns of older adults using a mobile application (app) as part of a behavioral physical activity intervention.

Methods:

Data from 35 participants in a 12-week home-based activity intervention were used for this secondary qualitative analysis. The intervention provided participants with a Jawbone Up24 activity monitor and an Apple iPad mini installed with the UP application (app) to facilitate self-monitoring and social interaction. All participants were given an anonymous account and were encouraged to interact with other participants in the app. Social support features included comments and “likes”. Thematic coding was used to identify the type of social support provided on the Up application and to characterize levels of engagement from each user. Active participants are categorized as superusers or contributors, and passive participants are categorized as lurkers.

Results:

Over the 12-week intervention, participants provided a total of 3,153 likes and 1,759 comments. Most participants (n=25) were contributors with four categorized as superusers and six categorized as lurkers. Comments were coded as emotional support, informational support, instrumental support, self-talk, and other, with emotional support being the most prevalent type.

Conclusions:

Older adults are willing to use social features in an activity app to communicate with anonymous peers. These apps are a promising tool for delivering virtual social support. Clinical Trial: clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01869348; The University of Texas Medical Branch Institutional Review Board Protocol #: 13-071