Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: May 19, 2023
Date Accepted: Aug 18, 2023
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Use Patterns of Smartphone Apps and Wearable Devices Supporting Physical Activity and Exercise: a large-scale cross-sectional survey
ABSTRACT
Background:
Physical inactivity is a global health issue, and mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) are expected to play an important role in promoting physical activity. Empirical studies have demonstrated the efficacy and efficiency of app-based interventions, and an increasing number of apps with more functions and richer content have been released in markets. Regardless of the success of mHealth apps, there are important evidence gaps in the literature; that is, it is largely unknown who uses what app functions and which functions are associated with physical activity.
Objective:
To investigate the usage patterns of apps and wearables supporting physical activity and exercise in a Japanese-speaking community sample.
Methods:
We recruited N = 20,573 online panels who completed questionnaires concerning demographics, regular physical activity levels, and use of apps and wearables supporting physical activity.
Results:
Approximately a quarter of the sample were identified as app users who showed similar demographic characteristics documented in the literature; that is, they were younger, had a higher income, received higher education, and were more active than non-app users. Our results revealed unique associations between demographic variables and specific app functions (e.g., sensor information, journaling, and GPS were more frequently used by men than women). Another important finding is that people typically use two different functions within an app (IQR: 1-4 functions), and the most common pattern was to use sensor information (i.e., self-monitoring) and one other function such as goal setting or reminders.
Conclusions:
Regardless of the current trend of app development toward multifunctionality, our findings highlight the importance of app simplicity. A set of two functions (more precisely, self-monitoring and one other function) might be the minimum that can be accepted by most users. In addition, the identified individual differences will help developers and stakeholders pave the way for the personalization of app functions.
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.