Do mHealth tools promote physical exercise?

Every adult between the ages of 18 and 64 should at least get 150 to 300 minutes of moderate physical exercise a week (or 75 to 150 minutes if it’s intense). Those over 65 should also complement this activity with exercises aimed at improving their quality of life and safety (thus reducing their risk of falling, for example). This is reflected in the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO), which also indicates that physical activity contributes to the prevention and management of many non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer or diabetes.

The WHO defines physical activity as “any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles, with the consequent consumption of energy.” The term thus refers to “all movement, even during leisure time, to get to and from certain places, or as part of a person’s work”. That is, the WHO includes everything from walking or playing to intense sports activities. In this way, general physical activity is distinguished from physical exercise, defined by the American College of Sports Medicine as planned, structured, and repetitive movement to improve one or more components of physical fitness.

Both in physical activity and in exercise, digital and mobile health tools are increasingly common and are presented as a solution to optimize management, evaluation and control by medical professionals.

The efficacy of physical activity programs and user adherence to them tend to be greater when they have been prescribed using mobile digital devices than when they have been prescribed in person or without technological support. This is the conclusion of a meta-study prepared as the first step in an ongoing thesis by researcher Toni Caparrós, within the Health and Psychology program of the Doctoral School of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and directed by Carme Carrion, principal investigator of the group eHealth Lab, of the Health Sciences Studies, and collaborator of the eHealth Center.

Caparrós, PhD in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, aims to address new methods and procedures to improve the efficiency of physical activity programs as a treatment for different pathologies.

The conclusions of the review of research results indicate, among other things, that mHealth tools promote physical exercise. (Photo: Amazings/NCYT)

“In-person attendance is effective and necessary, but the digital environment has its advantages. It makes it possible to cover larger population groups and get closer to the population that, due to dispersion or travel difficulties, cannot access face-to-face treatments,” says Toni Caparrós. “If we achieve fluid communication through digital tools, these programs can be very effective.”

In the new study, the results of thirteen studies completed between 2011 and 2021 are analyzed in a non-quantitative way, with the aim of evaluating to what extent the individual characteristics of people and their pathologies are taken into account when prescribing and carrying conduct physical activity programs.

After an initial pre-selection of more than 400 investigations on the use of mobile technologies in physical activity programmes, the UOC researchers ended up selecting those 13 studies that met the criteria they wanted to evaluate. These are the most outstanding conclusions of his analysis:

– Improvement of the effectiveness of the intervention. In 70% of the cases studied, a significant improvement in the efficacy of physical activity treatments was found.

– Improved adherence. 85% of the studies analyzed concluded that treatment adherence (compliance) was higher when it involved mobile health technologies.

– A focus on quantity. When studying the effects of these treatments, most research focused on the amount of exercise (for example, the number of steps per day) and not on the intensity or quality of it.

– Mobile phones and applications, the most used. Although some treatments are communicated through technologies such as text messages or social networks, the most common is based on the use of mobile applications and smartphones.

– Scarce individualization of treatments. Almost none of the studies analyzed reflected the adaptation of physical activity programs to the abilities, age, or pathology of the patient.

“Although the sample analyzed is very small, the first notable conclusion is that physical exercise interventions in the digital field are equal to or more effective than face-to-face ones,” explains Caparrós. “But, from here, we have seen that all these proposals use very generic variables and do not provide quality information, since their designs are not specific for the participating individuals or for the diseases. And it is clear that it is not the same to address to a person over 70 years of age than to a young person with different digital skills”.

In this way, the UOC’s research establishes a new line of study, which will be continued during the development of the thesis, to improve the prescription of physical exercise in the field of digital health, paying attention to the individual needs of the patient ( depending on their pathology and physical condition and prescribed according to medical criteria) and the technological capacities of each one. “Regarding quantity, it is easy to manage exercise digitally, but in terms of quality and intensity, which are really important, it has not been deepened enough,” adds Caparrós.

The study is titled “Effectiveness and Adherence to Physical Activity and Physical Exercise mHealth Interventions: A Systematic Review.” And it has been published in the academic journal Apunts Educación Física y Deportes. (Source: UOC)