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research-article

Learning healthy habits with a mobile self-intervention

Authors:

Ilkka Korhonen,

Joona Järvinen,

Kirsikka KaipainenAuthors Info & Claims

PervasiveHealth '14: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare

Pages 150 - 157

https://doi.org/10.4108/icst.pervasivehealth.2014.254951

Published: 20 May 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Health interventions aim to influence behavior by creating healthy habits that substitute existing unhealthy ones. Habits are often deeply ingrained but also easily disrupted in new situations. This makes the changing of habits a life-long learning and adaptation process rather than a one-time task with limited duration. Therefore, modern understanding of learning may be applied in designing effective and sustainable health interventions. We have designed the "Mindless Change" mobile intervention based on a framework of modern learning theories. The self-intervention guides the user in a habit formation through small daily changes, supported by a user selectable simple cartoon type of avatar with varied dialogue. We conducted a four-week pilot study with 66 participants to assess the feasibility of our intervention and especially the contribution of the avatar. Users found the self-intervention intuitive and easy to use but the attrition remained a challenge in this open pilot where participants were not provided any external motivation, support or incentives to start and continue using the service. The results suggest that even a simple non-anthropomorphic support avatar can be beneficial for the health intervention, which encourages us to investigate the concept further.

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Cited By

Luhanga EMase KLangheinrich MGatica-Perez DGellersen HChoudhury TYatani K(2015)Evaluating effectiveness of stimulus control, time management and self-reward for weight loss behavior changeAdjunct Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers10.1145/2800835.2801645(441-446)Online publication date: 7-Sep-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2800835.2801645

Index Terms

Learning healthy habits with a mobile self-intervention
1. Applied computing

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Information & Contributors

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Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

PervasiveHealth '14: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare

May 2014

459 pages

ISBN:9781631900112

General Chair:
Andreas Hein
OFFIS-Institute for IT, Oldenburg, Germany
,
Program Chairs:
Susanne Boll
OFFIS-Institute for IT, Oldenburg, Germany
,
Friedrich Köhler
Charité, Berlin, Germany

In-Cooperation

SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

Publisher

ICST (Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering)

Brussels, Belgium

Publication History

Published: 20 May 2014

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PervasiveHealth '14

PervasiveHealth '14: 8th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare

May 20 - 23, 2014

Oldenburg, Germany

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Overall Acceptance Rate 55 of 116 submissions, 47%

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Cited By

Luhanga EMase KLangheinrich MGatica-Perez DGellersen HChoudhury TYatani K(2015)Evaluating effectiveness of stimulus control, time management and self-reward for weight loss behavior changeAdjunct Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers10.1145/2800835.2801645(441-446)Online publication date: 7-Sep-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2800835.2801645

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