Current mHealth technologies for physical activity assessment and promotion.
BACKGROUND
Novel mobile assessment and intervention capabilities are changing the face of physical activity (PA) research. A comprehensive systematic review of how mobile technology has been used for measuring PA and promoting PA behavior change is needed.


METHODS
Article collection was conducted using six databases from February to June 2012 with search terms related to mobile technology and PA. Articles that described the use of mobile technologies for PA assessment, sedentary behavior assessment, and/or interventions for PA behavior change were included. Articles were screened for inclusion and study information was extracted.


RESULTS
Analyses were conducted from June to September 2012. Mobile phone-based journals and questionnaires, short message service (SMS) prompts, and on-body PA sensing systems were the mobile technologies most utilized. Results indicate that mobile journals and questionnaires are effective PA self-report measurement tools. Intervention studies that reported successful promotion of PA behavior change employed SMS communication, mobile journaling, or both SMS and mobile journaling.


CONCLUSIONS
mHealth technologies are increasingly being employed to assess and intervene on PA in clinical, epidemiologic, and intervention research. The wide variations in technologies used and outcomes measured limit comparability across studies, and hamper identification of the most promising technologies. Further, the pace of technologic advancement currently outstrips that of scientific inquiry. New adaptive, sequential research designs that take advantage of ongoing technology development are needed. At the same time, scientific norms must shift to accept "smart," adaptive, iterative, evidence-based assessment and intervention technologies that will, by nature, improve during implementation.
Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. Electronic address: goreilly@usc.edu.
Gillian A
GA
O'Reilly
Donna
D
Spruijt-Metz
D040421:Cell Phone; D015444:Exercise; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008838:Microcomputers; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods; D014584:User-Computer Interface