Increasing physical activity through mobile device interventions: A systematic review

Physical inactivity is a health problem that affects people worldwide and has been identified as the fourth largest risk factor for overall mortality (contributing to 6% of deaths globally). Many researchers have tried to increase physical activity levels through traditional methods without much suc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health informatics journal 2016-09, Vol.22 (3), p.451-469
Main Authors: Muntaner, Adrià, Vidal-Conti, Josep, Palou, Pere
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cell Phone
Cellular telephones
Exercise
Exercise - physiology
Health Behavior
Humans
Intervention
Mobile Applications
Physical fitness
Systematic review
Text Messaging
Wireless communications
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Physical inactivity is a health problem that affects people worldwide and has been identified as the fourth largest risk factor for overall mortality (contributing to 6% of deaths globally). Many researchers have tried to increase physical activity levels through traditional methods without much success. Thus, many researchers are turning to mobile technology as an emerging method for changing health behaviours. This systematic review sought to summarise and update the existing scientific literature on increasing physical activity through mobile device interventions, taking into account the methodological quality of the studies. The articles were identified by searching the PubMed, SCOPUS and SPORTDiscus databases for studies published between January 2003 and December 2013. Studies investigating efforts to increase physical activity through mobile phone or even personal digital assistant interventions were included. The search results allowed the inclusion of 11 studies that gave rise to 12 publications. Six of the articles included in this review reported significant increases in physical activity levels. The number of studies using mobile devices for interventions has increased exponentially in the last few years, but future investigations with better methodological quality are needed to draw stronger conclusions regarding how to increase physical activity through mobile device interventions.
ISSN:1460-4582
1741-2811
DOI:10.1177/1460458214567004