Strategies to Engage Adolescents in Digital Health Interventions for Obesity Prevention and Management

Partridge, Stephanie R.; Redfern, Julie

doi:10.3390/healthcare6030070

Cited by 57 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…A total of 2 recent systematic reviews have investigated the efficacy of different strategies and features used to engage adolescents in digital health interventions [19,56]. Partridge and Redfern [56] found that key strategies for effective engagement included co-designing with adolescents, personalization or tailoring of interventions, and just-in-time adaptation allowing the provision of personalized support based on an individual's current context. A systematic review by Schoeppe et al [19] found that higher quality apps, in terms of functionality and user ratings, included more app features (such as educational information, social networking options, and gamification) and BCTs.…”

Section: Designing An Engaging Health App For Adolescentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Multiple Health Behavior Change, Self-Monitoring Mobile App for Adolescents: Development and Usability Study of the Health4Life App

et al. 2021

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Background The link between chronic diseases and the Big 6 lifestyle risk behaviors (ie, poor diet, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol use, sedentary recreational screen time, and poor sleep) is well established. It is critical to target these lifestyle risk behaviors, as they often co-occur and emerge in adolescence. Smartphones have become an integral part of everyday life, and many adolescents already use mobile apps to monitor their lifestyle behaviors and improve their health. Smartphones may be a valuable platform for engaging adolescents with interventions to prevent key chronic disease risk behaviors. Objective The aim of this paper is to describe the development, usability, and acceptability of the Health4Life app, a self-monitoring smartphone app for adolescents that concurrently targets the Big 6 lifestyle behaviors. Methods The development of the Health4Life app was an iterative process conducted in collaboration with adolescents and experts. The development process consisted of three stages: scoping the literature; end user consultations, which included a web-based survey (N=815; mean age 13.89, SD 0.89 years) and a focus group (N=12) among adolescents; and app development and beta testing. Following this development work, 232 adolescents were asked to rate the usability and acceptability of the app. Results The process resulted in a self-monitoring smartphone app that allows adolescent users to track and set goals for the Big 6 health behaviors, using in-app rewards and notifications to enhance engagement. The overall adolescent feedback was positive in terms of user-friendly design, content, relevance, and helpfulness. Commonly identified areas for improvement were to increase interactive features and display recorded health behaviors differently to improve interpretability. Conclusions The Health4Life app is a co-designed, self-monitoring smartphone app for adolescents that concurrently targets the Big 6 lifestyle behaviors. Adolescents rated the app as highly acceptable and usable. The app has the potential to efficiently and effectively modify important risk factors for chronic disease among young people and is currently being evaluated in a world-first trial of 6640 secondary school students in 71 schools across Australia.

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Section: Designing An Engaging Health App For Adolescentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Multiple Health Behavior Change, Self-Monitoring Mobile App for Adolescents: Development and Usability Study of the Health4Life App

et al. 2021

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“…Among all teens, 42% had searched for fitness and exercise information online and 19% had searched for information on stress and anxiety. Digital technology has been studied as a way to deliver sexual health education (8), weight management (9–11), physical activity (12–14), and nutrition interventions (15, 16), and to enhance medication adherence (17) among adolescents in the general population. Several early studies have highlighted the promise of using technology to address adolescent mental health, including suicide prevention and outreach (18, 19) and treatment for depression and anxiety (20).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experts agree that the effective design of digital health interventions requires a user-centered and iterative approach (27, 28), particularly for adolescents who are often early adopters of digital technology (11, 29). The aims of this study were to examine how adolescents receiving public mental health services use digital technology and social media and to explore their preferences for using technology to support health and wellness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adolescents' Use of Digital Technologies and Preferences for Mobile Health Coaching in Public Mental Health Settings

Aschbrenner

Naslund

Tomlinson

et al. 2019

Front. Public Health

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Objective: Youth with mental illnesses often engage in unhealthy behaviors associated with early mortality from physical diseases in adulthood, but interventions to support positive health behaviors are rarely offered as part of routine mental health care for this group. Digital health technology that is desirable, accessible, and affordable has the potential to address health behaviors in public mental health settings where many adolescents with severe mental health problems receive care. The aims of this study were to examine how adolescents receiving public mental health services use digital technology and social media and to explore their preferences using technology to support health and wellness. Methods: Using a convergent parallel mixed methods design, we surveyed adolescents ages 13-18 from four community mental health centers in one state and conducted focus group interviews to explore their perspectives on using digital technology and social media to receive health coaching and connect with peers to support healthy behaviors. The survey and focus group data were merged to inform the future development of a digital health intervention for adolescents receiving public mental health services. Results: Of 121 survey respondents (mean age 15.2, SD = 1.5), 92% had a cell phone, 79% had a smartphone, 90% used text messaging, and 98% used social media. Focus group interviews revealed that adolescents were interested in receiving strengths-based mobile health coaching, and they preferred structured online peer-to-peer interactions in which a professional moderator promotes positive connections and adherence to privacy guidelines. Conclusions: Adolescents receiving public mental health services in this study had access to smartphones and were frequent social media users. These data suggest that digital health interventions to promote health and wellness among adolescents may be scalable in community mental health settings. Adolescent participants suggested that digital health interventions for this group should focus on strengths and online peer support for health promotion should include a professional moderator to foster and manage peer-to-peer interactions.

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“…The use of such a validation process assesses the relevance and appropriateness of the education content for greater acceptance and responsiveness by the beneficiaries based on Roger's diffusion of innovation theory [38]. Moreover, the evidence generated from the feedback by the participants (end-users) enables the integration of learning into local service delivery and especially in complex tailored interventions [39][40][41].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validation of Health Education Material for Youth: A Step to Ensure Implementation Fidelity in Community-Based Interventions

et al. 2019

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Health education materials such as flipbooks enhance learning and deliver key messages in a captivating mode. Validation of such materials is crucial to ensuring implementation fidelity. We conducted a study to achieve two objectives: (a) to develop two flipbooks, one each for adolescents and young married women (YMW); (b) to validate the flipbooks using five parameters, namely, content validity, construct validity, concurrent validity, relevance, and face validity. The study was a part of a community-based peer-led intervention on health, nutrition, and hygiene. The content validity and relevance were assessed by interviewing outreach workers (ORWs, n = 42) using self-administered five-point Likert scale-based tools. A pre- and post-intervention assessment of knowledge among adolescents (n = 100) and YMW (n = 50) across six out of 13 intervention sites was done to evaluate the construct validity. The two flipbooks contained 12 structured sessions with five key messages per session, in addition to illustrations, discussion points, and theme-based stories at the end of each session. The content and relevancy indices were ranked above 80% by ORW. There was a statistically significant increase in the knowledge scores of adolescents (p < 0.001) and YMW (p < 0.001) post intervention. The validation process helps in assessing the relevance and appropriateness of the education content for greater acceptance and responsiveness by the users.

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Strategies to Engage Adolescents in Digital Health Interventions for Obesity Prevention and Management

Cited by 57 publications

References 68 publications

A Multiple Health Behavior Change, Self-Monitoring Mobile App for Adolescents: Development and Usability Study of the Health4Life App

A Multiple Health Behavior Change, Self-Monitoring Mobile App for Adolescents: Development and Usability Study of the Health4Life App

Adolescents' Use of Digital Technologies and Preferences for Mobile Health Coaching in Public Mental Health Settings

Validation of Health Education Material for Youth: A Step to Ensure Implementation Fidelity in Community-Based Interventions

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