ArticleDigital health
Implementation of the goal-setting components in popular physical activity apps: Review and content analysis.
Article in Digital health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Theory-based promotion of diet and transportation behavior change to reduce carbon footprint among students: Randomized parallel trial of the GROW app.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2026Trial
- Deconstructing Fitbit to Specify the Effective Features in Promoting Physical Activity Among Inactive Adults: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2024Trial
- Health Consumers' Use and Perceptions of Health Information from Generative Artificial Intelligence Chatbots: A Scoping Review.Applied clinical informatics · 2025Article
- Understanding factors influencing exercise program adherence for youth with persistent post-concussive symptoms (PPCS).Brain injury · 2025Article
- Primary School Pupils' Perceptions and Experiences of Wearable Technologies.The Journal of school health · 2024Article
- Hourly step recommendations to achieve daily goals for working and older adults.Communications medicine · 2024Article
- Physical Activity Trends Among Adults in a National Mobile Health Program: A Population-Based Cohort Study of 411,528 Adults.American journal of epidemiology · 2023Article
- Active older adults goal setting outcomes for engaging in a physical activity app and the motivation characteristics of these goals (MOVEAGE-ACT).Preventive medicine reports · 2023Article
- SATO (IDEAS expAnded wiTh BCIO): Workflow for designers of patient-centered mobile health behaviour change intervention applications.Journal of biomedical informatics · 2023Article
- Supporting Autonomous Motivation for Physical Activity With Chatbots During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Factorial Experiment.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Active Use and Engagement in an mHealth Initiative Among Young Men With Obesity: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Determinants of Fitness App Usage and Moderating Impacts of Education-, Motivation-, and Gamification-Related App Features on Physical Activity Intentions: Cross-sectional Survey Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- Evaluating the quality and safety of health-related apps and e-tools: Adapting the Mobile App Rating Scale and developing a quality assurance protocol.Internet interventions · 2021Article
- Goal setting and achievement for walking: A series of N-of-1 digital interventions.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2021Article
- Engagement Features in Physical Activity Smartphone Apps: Focus Group Study With Sedentary People.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2020Article
- Clusters of Adolescent Physical Activity Tracker Patterns and Their Associations With Physical Activity Behaviors in Finland and Ireland: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Article
- Digital interventions in the treatment of cardiovascular risk factors and atherosclerotic vascular disease.International journal of cardiology. Heart & vasculature · 2020Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveGoal setting is an effective strategy to promote physical activity. Commercial apps that tackle physical activity often include goal setting; however, it is unknown whether the implementation of the goal-setting components is congruent with the theory. This study evaluated the quality of goal setting in popular free and paid physical activity apps by assessing the presence of effective goal-setting components.
methodsA six-item scale was developed based on the goal-setting literature and used for coding each app for the presence/absence of goal-setting components (i.e. specificity, difficulty, action planning, timeframe, goal evaluation and goal re-evaluation). Cohen's Kappa was used to evaluate inter-rater reliability for each scale item. The number of goal-setting components included in the 40 apps was calculated and the difference between free and paid apps was assessed.
resultsAll scale items achieved satisfactory inter-rater reliability except 'goal evaluation'. The most frequently included goal-setting components in popular physical activity apps were 'goal specificity' (95% of the apps) and 'goal timeframe' (67.5%). Conversely, only 47.5% and 25% of the apps implemented 'action planning' and 'goal difficulty', respectively, and none included 'goal re-evaluation'. No differences emerged between free and paid apps.
conclusionsThe quality of the goal-setting strategy in popular physical activity apps could be improved by introducing components scarcely implemented to date. In particular, tailoring the goal difficulty to the users' ability level and re-evaluating the goals based on achievements should be implemented to increase the quality of goal setting.
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