JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Tailoring an online intervention to participants’ preferences, e.g. by giving participants a choice which module(s) to follow, may increase engagement in the intervention, motivation for behavioural change, and possibly increase intervention effects. So far, little is known about what characteristics predict these module choices. Filling this knowledge gap is useful for optimising program engagement.

Objective:

We investigated the participants’ choice for a dietary or physical activity (PA) promotion module in our web-based computer-tailored intervention based on self-determination theory and motivational interviewing. Furthermore, we investigated which demographic characteristics, constructs from the self-determination theory (SDT) and motivational interviewing (MI), psychosocial constructs, advice on which module to follow and current behaviour were associated with these choices.

Methods:

Participants who were randomised into the intervention condition of the MyLifestyleCoach RCT, completed a baseline questionnaire and then continued to the opening session. Here, they received advice on their own diet and PA. At the session’s end, they chose which lifestyle module(s) they would like to follow (diet, PA, both or no module). Measurements included self-reported diet and PA, demographic information and several psychosocial and SDT/MI constructs. In total, data of 589 Dutch adults (58.6% women; mean age was 52.0 ±13.5 years) were analysed.

Results:

Of this sample, 55% chose to do both the diet and PA module (n = 322), about 25% chose to follow the diet module (n = 150), 18% preferred to follow no module and 2% chose to do the PA module only. Results from the stepwise multinomial logistic regression showed that older people, those who scored low on importance to change their current diet, those who scored high on importance to change their current PA levels, people who were more committed to eat healthily, those who were less committed to be physically active, and those who consumed more fruit were more likely to choose no module compared to the diet module. People who had more motivation to change their current PA, those who were less committed to change their current PA, and those who received a strong advice compared to a slight advice to follow the diet module were more likely to choose both modules compared to the diet module only.

Conclusions:

The results show that more than half of the sample was interested in following both the diet and PA module in this online lifestyle intervention. Several characteristics were found to be related to module choice. A future challenge is to examine how combined factors could provide further insight into what predicts module choice, as current results were hard to interpret.