Fluctuations in mHealth engagement following receipt of goal-discrepant feedback messages
Objective Digital behavior change interventions can successfully promote change in behavioral outcomes, but often suffer from steep decreases in engagement over time, which hampers their effectiveness. Providing feedback on goal performance is an established technique to promote goal attainment; how...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | Digital Health |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076241312569 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1841551985437835264 |
|---|---|
| author | Lex Hurley Nisha G O’Shea Brooke T Nezami Carmina G Valle Deborah F Tate |
| author_facet | Lex Hurley Nisha G O’Shea Brooke T Nezami Carmina G Valle Deborah F Tate |
| author_sort | Lex Hurley |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective Digital behavior change interventions can successfully promote change in behavioral outcomes, but often suffer from steep decreases in engagement over time, which hampers their effectiveness. Providing feedback on goal performance is an established technique to promote goal attainment; however, theory indicates that sending goal-discrepant feedback messages could cause some users to respond more negatively than others. This analysis assessed whether goal-discrepant messaging was negatively associated with participant engagement, and if this relationship was exacerbated by baseline depressive symptoms within the context of a three-month weight loss pilot mHealth intervention. Methods This analysis applied a generalization of log-linear regression analysis with n = 52 participants (78.8% female, 61.5% white, ages 21–35) to assess the likelihood of reading consecutive program messages following receipt of messages with goal-discrepant content. Results Receipt of goal-discrepant messages was associated with a significantly lower likelihood (RR = 0.89) of participants reading the next program message sent, compared to receiving positive/neutral messages or no message, but these relationships were not influenced by depressive symptoms in this sample. Conclusion Feedback on goal performance remains an important behavior change technique; however, sending push messages that alert participants to their goal-discrepant status seems to reduce the likelihood that participants will read future program messages. Sending messages containing positive or neutral content does not seem to carry this negative risk among individuals in goal-discrepant states. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-59f4ad8dd5b9431ca745344c92850d40 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2055-2076 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Digital Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-59f4ad8dd5b9431ca745344c92850d402025-01-09T14:04:19ZengSAGE PublishingDigital Health2055-20762025-01-011110.1177/20552076241312569Fluctuations in mHealth engagement following receipt of goal-discrepant feedback messagesLex Hurley0Nisha G O’Shea1Brooke T Nezami2Carmina G Valle3Deborah F Tate4 Department of Health Behavior, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA , Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA Department of Nutrition, , North Carolina, USA Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, , North Carolina, USA Nutrition Research Institute, , Kannapolis, NC, USAObjective Digital behavior change interventions can successfully promote change in behavioral outcomes, but often suffer from steep decreases in engagement over time, which hampers their effectiveness. Providing feedback on goal performance is an established technique to promote goal attainment; however, theory indicates that sending goal-discrepant feedback messages could cause some users to respond more negatively than others. This analysis assessed whether goal-discrepant messaging was negatively associated with participant engagement, and if this relationship was exacerbated by baseline depressive symptoms within the context of a three-month weight loss pilot mHealth intervention. Methods This analysis applied a generalization of log-linear regression analysis with n = 52 participants (78.8% female, 61.5% white, ages 21–35) to assess the likelihood of reading consecutive program messages following receipt of messages with goal-discrepant content. Results Receipt of goal-discrepant messages was associated with a significantly lower likelihood (RR = 0.89) of participants reading the next program message sent, compared to receiving positive/neutral messages or no message, but these relationships were not influenced by depressive symptoms in this sample. Conclusion Feedback on goal performance remains an important behavior change technique; however, sending push messages that alert participants to their goal-discrepant status seems to reduce the likelihood that participants will read future program messages. Sending messages containing positive or neutral content does not seem to carry this negative risk among individuals in goal-discrepant states.https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076241312569 |
| spellingShingle | Lex Hurley Nisha G O’Shea Brooke T Nezami Carmina G Valle Deborah F Tate Fluctuations in mHealth engagement following receipt of goal-discrepant feedback messages Digital Health |
| title | Fluctuations in mHealth engagement following receipt of goal-discrepant feedback messages |
| title_full | Fluctuations in mHealth engagement following receipt of goal-discrepant feedback messages |
| title_fullStr | Fluctuations in mHealth engagement following receipt of goal-discrepant feedback messages |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fluctuations in mHealth engagement following receipt of goal-discrepant feedback messages |
| title_short | Fluctuations in mHealth engagement following receipt of goal-discrepant feedback messages |
| title_sort | fluctuations in mhealth engagement following receipt of goal discrepant feedback messages |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076241312569 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lexhurley fluctuationsinmhealthengagementfollowingreceiptofgoaldiscrepantfeedbackmessages AT nishagoshea fluctuationsinmhealthengagementfollowingreceiptofgoaldiscrepantfeedbackmessages AT brooketnezami fluctuationsinmhealthengagementfollowingreceiptofgoaldiscrepantfeedbackmessages AT carminagvalle fluctuationsinmhealthengagementfollowingreceiptofgoaldiscrepantfeedbackmessages AT deborahftate fluctuationsinmhealthengagementfollowingreceiptofgoaldiscrepantfeedbackmessages |