Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Apr 7, 2020
Date Accepted: Aug 11, 2020
Network Support Using Social Networking Services (SNSs) to Increase Exercise Adherence for Korean-Chinese (KC) Middle-Aged Migrant Women: A Text Mining Approach
ABSTRACT
Background:
Social networking services (SNSs) are recognized to be a promising approach to easily deliver health interventions and to enhance social support for exercise adherence. However, the patterns and aspects of social support through SNSs have not been reported and their influence on other social cognitive factors remain inconclusive.
Objective:
To explore how social support delivered through SNSs impacted interactions among KC middle-aged women and identify how this approach influenced social-cognitive factors for exercise (e.g., sense of community, self-efficacy for exercise, social support for exercise).
Methods:
A mixed-methods design was used. SNS Messages(n=259) were collected from 4 chat groups of 24 KC women who participated in a 12-week walking intervention program between August and October 2018. Text analysis of the messages and text mining using KoALA software were conducted. Social-cognitive factors (e.g., sense of community, self-efficacy for exercise, social support for exercise) were assessed at baseline and after 12 weeks using a structured questionnaire. A comparison of social-cognitive factors at baseline and 12 weeks was conducted to identify any potential significant changes using the Wilcoxon signed rank test.
Results:
The individual average frequency of chatting via SNSs was 10.79 (Range: 0-34) and the most frequent type of social support through SNSs was network support (66.4%). The most common words extracted from the SNS were “Health,” “Exercise,” “Participation,” and “We.” Overall, the perceived levels of sense of community (P<.001) and social support for exercise (P=.002) were significantly increased at 12 weeks compared with baseline. Groups 1(P=.03) and 4(P=.03), who demonstrated the highest frequency of network support only experienced a significant increase in the level of sense of community.
Conclusions:
By integrating these data and conducting a mixed method analysis, we observed that among the types of social support, network support was a key point for the promotion of social-cognitive factors increasing exercise adherence. Therefore, network support through group-based SNSs should be considered as a useful strategy to help vulnerable migrant populations make changes to exercise behaviors.
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