Integrating Health Theories in Health and Fitness Applications for Sustained Behavior Change: Current State of the Art

Angela Brunstein, Joerg Brunstein, Selma Limam Mansar

Department of Psychology, Devision of Population Health Sciences, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – Medical University of Bahrain, Bussaiteen, Bahrain.
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Information Systems Program, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Doha, Qatar.

DOI: 10.4236/ce.2012.38B001                

Abstract

Two hundred million people in the US are overweight or obese mirroring a worldwide trend that is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. Health and fitness mobile technology applications have great capacities for supporting dieters’ life-style changes and could profit from and provide input of health behavior theories. Those theories have been demonstrated with massive clinical evidence to be efficient for fostering healthy lifestyle changes and weight loss. This research reviewed the 100 most popular mobile technology applications from iTunes App Store’s Health and Fitness category in respect coverage of health behavior theories’ concepts und chose 14 of those for a complete analysis. Applications provide good support for athletes’ workouts and have great potential to be extended to serve overweight users as well. Missing features could be easily implemented given the current state of technology. These developments look promising for tackling sustained weight loss in many mobile technology users.

Keywords

Health and Fitness Applications, Health Behavior Theories, Mobile Technology Applications

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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