JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Czech older adults have lower rates of physical activity than the population average and lag behind in the use of digital technologies even when compared to their peers from other European countries.

Objective:

The study objective was to assess the feasibility of intensive behavior monitoring through technology in Czech adults aged 50 years and older.

Methods:

Participants (N=30, M age = 61.2, SD = 6.8, range 50-74, 53% male, 23% retired) were monitored for 12 weeks while wearing a Fitbit Charge 2 monitor and completed three 8 day bursts of intensive data collection through surveys presented on a custom-made mobile app. Online surveys were also completed before and at the end of the 12-week period (along with post-study focus groups) to evaluate participant perceptions of their experience in the study.

Results:

All 30 participants completed the study. Across the three 8-day bursts, participants completed 1454 out of 1744 surveys administered three times per day at a pseudo-random schedule (83% compliance rate), 451 out of 559 end-of-day surveys (81% compliance rate), and additionally self-reported 736 episodes of planned physical activity (with 4% of the reports initiated but returned without data). Overall rating of using the mobile app and Fitbit was above average (74.5 out of 100 on the System Usability Scale). The majority reported the Fitbit (90%) and the application (84%) were easy to use and rated their experience positively (83%). Focus groups revealed that some surveys were missed due to notifications not being noticed or that participants would need a longer time window for survey completion. Some found wearing of the monitor in hot weather or at night uncomfortable, but overall participants were highly motivated to complete the surveys and to be compliant with the study procedures.

Conclusions:

The use of a mobile survey app coupled with a wearable device appears feasible for use with Czech older adults. Participants in this study tolerated the intensive assessment schedule well but lower compliance may be expected in studies of more diverse groups of older adults. Some difficulty was noted with pairing and synchronization of devices with some types of smartphones, posing challenges for large-scale studies.