ArticleHealth psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association2021
Goal setting and achievement for walking: A series of N-of-1 digital interventions.
Article in Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Smartphone-Based Digital Health Interventions: A Comprehensive Systematic Review of Efficacy for Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Outcomes.Journal of medical systems · 2025Pooled it
- Motivation toward physical activity and nutrition in older cancer patients: the MONAGE protocol using ecological momentary assessment and accelerometers.BMC geriatrics · 2025Trial
- HabitWalk: A micro-randomized trial to understand and promote habit formation in physical activity.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2025Trial
- Parent, child, and family outcomes following Acceptance And Commitment Therapy for parents of autistic children: A randomized controlled trial.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2024Trial
- Examining the Impact of an mHealth Behavior Change Intervention With a Brief In-Person Component for Cancer Survivors With Overweight or Obesity: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2021Trial
- Characterizing and predicting person-specific, day-to-day, fluctuations in walking behavior.PloS one · 2021Trial
- Optimizing Goal Difficulty in a Digital Weight Loss Intervention: The Ignite Pilot Randomized Trial.Obesity science & practice · 2026Article
- Snacktivity in older women: accelerometer-derived step counts, cadence, and bout patterns associated with adiposity.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JMIR serious games · 2025Review
- Exploring boundary conditions of physical activity maintenance: A secondary analysis of time-series data from a weight-loss intervention.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- The structural relationship between achievement goal orientation and perceived performance among swimmers: a chain multiple mediation model.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- A dynamic Bayesian network approach to modeling engagement and walking behavior: insights from a yearlong micro-randomized trial (Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- Predicting Goal Attainment in Process-Oriented Behavioral Interventions Using a Data-Driven System Identification Approach.Journal of process control · 2024Article
- Article
- Algorithmic lifestyle optimization.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2022Article
- Digital intervention promoting physical activity among obese people (DIPPAO) randomised controlled trial: study protocol.BMJ open · 2022Article
- The Niche of n-of-1 Trials in Precision Medicine for Weight Loss and Obesity Treatment: Back to the Future.Current nutrition reports · 2022Review
- Fitness center use and subsequent achievement of exercise goals. A prospective study on long-term fitness center members.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveDespite evidence that goal setting is valuable for physical activity promotion, recent studies highlighted a potential oversimplification in the application of this behavior change technique. While more difficult performance goals might trigger higher physical activity levels, higher performance goals might concurrently be more difficult to achieve, which could reduce long-term motivation. This study examined (a) the association between performance goal difficulty and physical activity and (b) the association between performance goal difficulty and goal achievement.
methodThis study used data from an e-Health intervention among inactive overweight adults (
resultsThe results confirm that, for a majority of the participants involved in the study, performance goal difficulty was positively and significantly associated with physical activity (
conclusionAt the daily level, setting a higher physical activity goal leads to engaging in higher physical activity levels, but concurrently lower goal achievement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.