Carol Maher*, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia Jocelyn Kernot, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia Tim Olds, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia Lucy Lewis, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia Track: Practice Presentation Topic: Building virtual communities and social networking applications for patients and consumers Presentation Type: Rapid-Fire Presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: Mermaid Room: Room 3 - Upper River Room Date: 2013-09-23 04:00 PM – 06:00 PM Last modified: 2013-09-25

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Background: Postpartum women are typically characterised by having low physical activity levels, despite commonly experiencing symptoms which are alleviated by physical activity. Nearly 300,000 women give birth in Australia each year, and an estimated 80% of Australian mothers use Facebook. Given Facebook’s tremendous reach and user engagement, it offers considerable potential for the delivery of mass-reach physical activity interventions.
Aim: This presentation will involve a practical demonstration of a new team-based Facebook application aimed at helping mothers with babies get more physical activity. Findings from the usability pilot study will also be presented.
Description of the application: The “Mums Step it Up” app was designed by health scientists at the University of South Australia in collaboration with a Portal Australia, a software development company. The app assists postpartum women to form teams of 4-8 friends from their existing Facebook network to take part in a 50-day physical activity challenge. Once a postpartum women downloads the app, she uses it to send invitations to eligible existing Facebook friends to join her team. All consenting participants receive a pedometer, and are encouraged to take 10,000 steps per day for 50 days. The Facebook app allows women to log their daily steps, see their team’s tally board, send virtual gifts (for example, gold sneakers to congratulate a team mate on a good performance, or flowers for encouragement), communicate via a wall (including organising to meet up to be physically active together) and compare their team’s performance with other teams’. The app is based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which emphasises the role of social influence in determining and changing health behaviour. The team-based nature of the application is anticipated to enhance the intervention's effectiveness by providing accountability, influencing expectations and offering social support. The application has also been based upon the “Fun Theory”, which suggests that user engagement with the application will be higher if it is enjoyable to use. Compared with other website applications that support phsyical activity which tend to be rather diadactic in nature, the Mums Step it Up application has incorporated numerous elements to make it enjoyable. Daily tips for physical activity have been written by a comedian and gamification elements have also been included, for example, numerous humorously-named awards are unlocked when participants reach certain stepping and logging achievements.
Development of the application to-date: the intervention was initially informed by a qualitative study undertaken with 20 postpartum women, which identified this population as (1) wanting to increase their physical activity levels, (2) typically being heavy Facebook users and (3) wanting to interact with existing friends online and in person. Usability and pilot testing is currently underway – to date four teams of mothers have been recruited, with one further team yet to be recruited. Usability testing will evaluate the team-forming process (including response rate of potential team members to the online invitations); identify technical errors with the application across a variety of platforms; confirm the appropriateness of application’s language, look and feel; and seek suggestions for improvement. The pilot will also provide preliminary evidence regarding the application’s effectiveness and feasibility in increasing self-reported physical activity, using a pre-post design. Physical activity behaviour will be measured using the Active Australia questionnaire. The pilot and usability study will be completed by the end of April 2013, thus findings will be available for presentation at the conference.
Future direction: A randomised controlled trial to rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of the Mums Step it Up app is planned for late 2013/early 2014.