Is Monitoring Behavior Necessary To Achieve Health Behavior Change? The Example of The Quit Smoking With Barça Mobile App
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Abstract
In recent years, we have experienced a surge in adoption of the ‘quantified self’ and associated devices. A growing number of applications allow us to track a variety of activities with accuracy and immediacy. An increasing proportion of the general public has started wearing activity trackers (e.g. FitBit Flex, Nike+ Fuel Band, etc.) or are using their smartphones for the sake of activity monitoring. They are tracking their activity, viewing charts, observing progress, and are able to receive feedback about their accomplishments in real time.
We will argue, however, that activity monitoring is not necessary to achieve sustainable behavior change. Although some apps already include feedback to boost users’ motivation, most are limited to tracking and displaying activity levels. What is missing is support: “coaching†entails more than the occasional motivational message to achieve a personal goal.
We will discuss what we consider essential to achieve sustainable health behavior change and illustrate this with our findings from the Quit Smoking With Barça mobile app, developed for the European Commission and FC Barcelona in the context of the ‘Ex-Smokers Are Unstoppable’ anti-tobacco campaign. Launched in december 2012, it has attracted more than 20 000 users. Our data show that users only rarely use the built-in diary function to track their smoking behavior, but nevertheless have 1 chance in 3 to quit smoking using the app.
We will argue, however, that activity monitoring is not necessary to achieve sustainable behavior change. Although some apps already include feedback to boost users’ motivation, most are limited to tracking and displaying activity levels. What is missing is support: “coaching†entails more than the occasional motivational message to achieve a personal goal.
We will discuss what we consider essential to achieve sustainable health behavior change and illustrate this with our findings from the Quit Smoking With Barça mobile app, developed for the European Commission and FC Barcelona in the context of the ‘Ex-Smokers Are Unstoppable’ anti-tobacco campaign. Launched in december 2012, it has attracted more than 20 000 users. Our data show that users only rarely use the built-in diary function to track their smoking behavior, but nevertheless have 1 chance in 3 to quit smoking using the app.
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