Gabbiadini Alessandro, Greitemeyer Tobias
Department of Psychology, University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy -
Department of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2019 Mar;59(3):407-414. doi: 10.23736/S0022-4707.18.08260-9. Epub 2018 Apr 4.
Recent studies suggest that about 6 out of 10 users have installed a fitness tracking application on their smartphone. Nevertheless, more than 59% of adults do not engage in sufficient daily physical activity and much remains unknown with regard to the effectiveness of mobile applications. By adopting the Theory of Planned Behavior, we tested whether the use of fitness apps for daily steps tracking could positively influence people's health behavior.
Participants (N.=78) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions; in one condition, they were asked to adopt a fitness app for two weeks. No information regarding mobile apps was given for participants in the control condition. In order to test the effects of using a fitness app, a series of two-way mixed ANOVAs were conducted.
Participants in the experimental condition reported more favorable attitudes in the post-test compared to the pre-test, t(43)=4.09, P<0.001, d=0.65. By contrast, in the control condition, the difference on attitudes between pre-test and post-test was not significant (P=1.00). They also reported higher perceived behavioral control (PBC) scores, t(43) =4.97, P<0.001, d=0.75, whereas the difference on PBC for the control condition was not significant (P=0.27). Participants who used a fitness app reported to have walked more in the post-test compared to the pre-test, t(43) =2.41, P=0.02, d=0.36, whereas self-reported behavior did not change for participants in the control condition (P=0.46).
The present study provides encouraging evidence for the positive effects of using a fitness-tracking app in promoting health behavior.
近期研究表明，十分之六的用户在其智能手机上安装了健身追踪应用程序。然而，超过59%的成年人日常身体活动不足，而且关于移动应用程序的有效性仍有许多未知之处。通过采用计划行为理论，我们测试了使用健身应用程序进行每日步数追踪是否能对人们的健康行为产生积极影响。
参与者（N = 78）被随机分配到两种实验条件之一；在一种条件下，他们被要求使用一款健身应用程序两周。对照组的参与者未获得有关移动应用程序的任何信息。为了测试使用健身应用程序的效果，进行了一系列双向混合方差分析。
与测试前相比，实验组的参与者在测试后报告了更积极的态度，t(43)=4.09，P<0.001，d = 0.65。相比之下，在对照组中，测试前和测试后态度的差异不显著（P = 1.00）。他们还报告了更高的感知行为控制（PBC）得分，t(43)=4.97，P<0.001，d = 0.75，而对照组PBC的差异不显著（P = 0.27）。与测试前相比，使用健身应用程序的参与者在测试后报告走得更多，t(43)=2.41，P = 0.02，d = 0.36，而对照组参与者的自我报告行为没有变化（P = 0.46）。
本研究为使用健身追踪应用程序促进健康行为的积极效果提供了令人鼓舞的证据。
