A Study on Compliance Gaining Strategy in Mobile Application for Promoting Physical Activity

Abstract

The growing number of people who are a lack of physical activity has resulted in the necessity for appropriate physical activity interventions such as mobile health applications. To inform effective design of mobile health applications for physical activity, this paper utilized Marwell and Schmitts compliance-gaining strategies as a framework, which refers to interactions in which one individual attempts to induce another person to perform a desired behavior. Therefore, we first conducted a preliminary content analysis of 74 mobile applications and identified which compliance gaining strategy is frequently used and how each strategy is being represented. Based on the result of the content analysis, we conducted a survey study (N=203) using storyboards that depicted 11 compliance-gaining appeals. The results of the survey revealed that Positive self-feeling and Promise strategies were perceived most positively while Negative altercasting and Aversive stimulation strategies were evaluated most negatively. In addition, we investigated the relationship between the perceived effectiveness of strategies and individual characteristics variables. We found that individual's sex, age, perception in mobile health application and exercise goal content were the predictor variables of the likelihood of compliance. In conclusion, we discussed the design implication to improve the design of mobile health application to promote physical activity.