Choi Soo Ji Serisse, Hung Pei-Yao, Liu Mengyun, Dempsey Walter, Newman Mark W, Klasnja Predrag
School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
J Med Internet Res. 2025 Aug 8;27:e75792. doi: 10.2196/75792.
Traditional mobile health interventions for physical activity (PA) primarily rely on reflective self-regulatory processes, often neglecting the role of affective associations in sustaining long-term engagement. The WalkToJoy intervention addresses this gap by applying the affective-reflective theory to enhance intrinsic motivation for PA among adults aged ≥40 years through affective message framing, evaluative conditioning, and belief updating.
This proof-of-concept study evaluated the feasibility of the message-based WalkToJoy intervention package and examined the impact of its 3 components-walking suggestion prompts, salience messages, and planning prompts-on affective and behavioral outcomes related to walking.
We conducted a fully remote, 6-week full factorial experiment with an embedded microrandomized trial (MRT) involving 49 adults aged ≥40 years. Statistical analyses, including paired t tests and generalized estimating equations, assessed pretest-posttest changes and the effects of smile-inducing walking suggestion prompts with short animated images (GIF images), salience messages, and planning prompts on weekly affective measures and daily step counts. In addition, MRT analyses evaluated the proximal effects of these components. Poststudy interviews were thematically analyzed to contextualize participants' experiences and engagement with the intervention.
Significant pretest-posttest improvements were observed across affective outcomes on a 7-point Likert scale-affective attitudes improved by 0.547 points (P<.001), affective valuations improved by 0.718 points (P<.001), affective reflection improved by 0.692 points (P<.001), and anticipated affect improved by 0.692 points (P<.001). While the average daily steps showed a nonsignificant pretest-posttest increase of 80 steps (P=.79), further analysis revealed an increase of 506 steps (P=.07) when comparing baseline to the average of weeks 4 to 6. Among the intervention components, GIF prompts significantly increased anticipated affect by 0.345 points (P=.046) and average daily step count by 1834 steps (P=.05) compared to identical text-only prompts. However, MRT analysis found no significant increase in 4-hour step counts following the walking suggestion prompts (P=.55), which was explained by qualitative findings suggesting that participants interpreted messages as flexible day-long reminders rather than immediate calls to action. Salience and planning prompts did not yield substantial quantitative effects but were positively received by participants for promoting mindfulness and personalized engagement.
The WalkToJoy intervention is a feasible and promising approach for improving affective associations with walking. Walking suggestion prompts were particularly effective in boosting engagement and mitigating message fatigue, highlighting the potential of affect-driven interventions to enhance PA motivation and adherence.
传统的身体活动（PA）移动健康干预主要依赖于反思性自我调节过程，常常忽视情感联想在维持长期参与中的作用。“走向快乐”干预通过应用情感 - 反思理论，通过情感信息框架、评价性条件作用和信念更新，增强40岁及以上成年人对PA的内在动机，从而解决了这一差距。
这项概念验证研究评估了基于信息的“走向快乐”干预方案的可行性，并检验了其三个组成部分——步行建议提示、显著性信息和计划提示——对与步行相关的情感和行为结果的影响。
我们进行了一项为期6周的完全远程全因子实验，并嵌入了微随机试验（MRT），涉及49名40岁及以上的成年人。统计分析，包括配对t检验和广义估计方程，评估了前后测变化以及带有简短动画图像（GIF图像）的诱导微笑步行建议提示、显著性信息和计划提示对每周情感测量和每日步数的影响。此外，MRT分析评估了这些组成部分的近端效应。对研究后的访谈进行了主题分析，以了解参与者的体验以及他们对干预的参与情况。
在7点李克特量表上的情感结果中观察到前后测有显著改善——情感态度提高了0.547分（P<.001），情感评价提高了0.718分（P<.001），情感反思提高了0.692分（P<.001），预期情感提高了0.692分（P<.001）。虽然每日平均步数在前后测中增加了80步，但差异不显著（P = 0.79），进一步分析显示，将基线与第4至6周的平均值进行比较时，步数增加了506步（P = 0.07）。在干预组成部分中，与仅包含相同文本的提示相比，GIF提示使预期情感显著增加了0.345分（P = 0.046），每日平均步数增加了1834步（P = 0.05）。然而，MRT分析发现，步行建议提示后4小时的步数没有显著增加（P = 0.55），定性研究结果表明，参与者将信息解释为灵活的全天提醒，而不是立即行动的呼吁，这解释了这一现象。显著性和计划提示没有产生实质性的定量影响，但在促进正念和个性化参与方面受到参与者的积极认可。
“走向快乐”干预是一种可行且有前景的方法，可改善与步行相关的情感联想。步行建议提示在提高参与度和减轻信息疲劳方面特别有效，突出了情感驱动干预在增强PA动机和坚持方面的潜力。
