Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Nov 30, 2022
Date Accepted: Mar 30, 2023
A randomized controlled trial to determine the efficacy of mHealth behavioral change intervention for promoting physical activity in the workplace
ABSTRACT
Background:
Insufficient physical activity (PA) is a well-established risk factor for several noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, depression, and dementia. The World Health Organization (WHO) advises that individuals engage in 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week or 75 minutes of intense physical activity per week. According to the WHO's latest report, 23% of adults fail to meet the minimum recommended level of PA. Governments are actively developing policies and methods to successfully establish a PA-inducing environment that encourages a healthy lifestyle in order to address the global steady decline in PA.
Objective:
To determine the effectiveness of mobile health (mHealth), particularly text messaging, to improve physical activity (PA) and decrease body mass index (BMI) in healthy adults in the workplace.
Methods:
In this parallel, two-arm, randomized controlled trial, healthy adults (n = 327) were randomized to receive a mHealth intervention (tailored text messages combined with self-monitoring (intervention; n = 166) or no intervention (control; n = 161). Adults who were fully employed in an academic institution and had limited physical activity during working hours were recruited for the study. Outcomes, PA and BMI, were assessed at baseline and 3 months later.
Results:
Results showed significant improvement in PA levels (weekly step counts) among the intervention group (difference 1097, 95% CI 922 to 1272, p < .001). There was also a significant reduction observed for BMI (difference .60, 95% CI .50 to .69, p < .001).
Conclusions:
Combining tailored text messages and self-monitoring intervention to improve PA and lower BMI was significantly effective and has the potential to leverage current methods to improve wellness among the public. Clinical Trial: APPL/2022/040
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.