The Use of Self-Monitoring and Technology to Increase Physical Activity: A Review of the Literature
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The Use of Self-Monitoring and Technology to Increase Physical Activity: A Review of the Literature E. Justin Page 1 & Andrew S. Massey 1 & Pedro N. Prado-Romero 1 & Shadi Albadawi 1
# Association for Behavior Analysis International 2020
Abstract The current obesity epidemic and inactive lifestyles of many Americans lead to health problems for millions of Americans and in turn, millions of dollars in medical bills. One aspect of this problem is the lack of physical activity that people engage in. Selfmonitoring techniques have been used in the past to increase physical activity. However, there has not been a systematic review of the literature on this research to date. Furthermore, as technology that is user-friendly and assists in self-monitoring physical activity becomes more available to the public, it is important to investigate its use when used in conjunction with self-monitoring. The purpose of this review was to determine how self-monitoring techniques and technology have been applied to increase physical activity across multiple populations. A systematic review of the literature identified 19 articles. Results indicated that the majority of studies used more than one type of selfmonitoring intervention. The most popular type of technology used with selfmonitoring were fitness trackers. Future research should continue to examine the most effective methodologies that produce lasting behavior change in physical activity. Keywords physical activity . self-monitoring . goal-setting . technology . systematic
review The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that health-related issues due to inactivity such as higher mortality rate and cardiovascular disease result in $117 billion in medical costs annually (CDC, 2018; Piercy et al., 2018). In 2017, 36% of adults did not meet the minimum guidelines for moderate physical activity (PA) and 63% of adults did not meet the guidelines for vigorous-intense PA (CDC, 2018). Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that fewer * E. Justin Page [email protected]
1
Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Perspectives on Behavior Science
than a quarter of the children between the years of 12 and 15 met the daily recommended guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (Fakhouri, Hughes, Song, Fulton, & Ogden, 2014). According to the CDC, the vigorousness of physical activity is measured by the expenditure of metabolic equivalents (MET), a measure that estimates the level of oxygen used during an activity. An activity is defined as moderate when approximately 3–5.9 METs are burned (e.g., walking, hiking, yoga) and vigorous when METs exceed 6 during any activity (e.g., basketball, jogging, running, tennis; Ainsworth et al., 2000; CDC, 2017). By applying self-monitoring interventions to the field of physical activity, there is a potential for people to meet these recommended requirements. Self-monitoring, goalsetting, self-recording, and feedback procedures are commonly used interventions in the field of applied behavior
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