ArticleJMIR formative research2021
A Multiple Health Behavior Change, Self-Monitoring Mobile App for Adolescents: Development and Usability Study of the Health4Life App.
Article in JMIR formative research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mobile Apps to Improve Health Parameters in Healthy Adults: Systematic Review.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Design Features Associated With Engagement in Mobile Health Physical Activity Interventions Among Youth: Systematic Review of Qualitative and Quantitative Studies.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2023Pooled it
- Potential associations between behavior change techniques and engagement with mobile health apps: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Pooled it
- A mobile healthy lifestyle intervention to promote mental health in adolescence: a mixed-methods evaluation.BMC public health · 2024Trial
- Process evaluation of a digital school-based intervention: lessons learned from the Health4Life study.Translational behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- Smartphone Apps and Wearables for Health Parameters in Young Adulthood: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR human factors · 2025Article
- Adolescent health knowledge and awareness: A comparative study of India and the United States.Journal of public health research · 2025Article
- Relative Validity of the Food Recording Smartphone App Libro in Young People Vulnerable to Eating Disorder: A Preliminary Cross-Over Study.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Adolescent Self-Reflection Process Through Self-Recording on Multiple Health Metrics: Qualitative Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Process evaluation of the digital Health4Life intervention among a sample of disadvantaged adolescents and teachers.Health promotion international · 2024Article
- An Exercise-Based Precision Medicine Tool and Smartphone App for Managing Achilles Tendinopathy (the 'PhysViz' System): User-Centered Development Study.JMIR human factors · 2024Article
- The Triple E project: a factorial randomised controlled trial to enhance engagement with eHealth approaches to improve health risk behaviours among adolescents.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Effects of a Serious Game for Adolescent Mental Health on Cognitive Vulnerability: Pilot Usability Study.JMIR serious games · 2024Article
- Article
- Design and usability evaluation of a mobile application for self-care among Iranian adolescents.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Digital behavioral dietary interventions to promote a healthy diet among children and adolescents: a scoping review of technologies, design, behavioral theory, and assessed outcomes.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2024Article
- A single-arm pilot study of a brief cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia intervention among Japanese occupational therapy and physical therapy university students with sleep disturbances.Frontiers in sleep · 2024Article
- Exploring the prioritisation of sleep, diet, and physical activity as pillars of health: correlates and associations with health behaviours in Australian adults.Journal of activity, sedentary and sleep behaviors · 2023Article
- Unlock digital health promotion in LMICs to benefit the youth.PLOS digital health · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe link between chronic diseases and the Big 6 lifestyle risk behaviors (ie, poor diet, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol use, sedentary recreational screen time, and poor sleep) is well established. It is critical to target these lifestyle risk behaviors, as they often co-occur and emerge in adolescence. Smartphones have become an integral part of everyday life, and many adolescents already use mobile apps to monitor their lifestyle behaviors and improve their health. Smartphones may be a valuable platform for engaging adolescents with interventions to prevent key chronic disease risk behaviors.
objectiveThe aim of this paper is to describe the development, usability, and acceptability of the Health4Life app, a self-monitoring smartphone app for adolescents that concurrently targets the Big 6 lifestyle behaviors.
methodsThe development of the Health4Life app was an iterative process conducted in collaboration with adolescents and experts. The development process consisted of three stages: scoping the literature; end user consultations, which included a web-based survey (N=815; mean age 13.89, SD 0.89 years) and a focus group (N=12) among adolescents; and app development and beta testing. Following this development work, 232 adolescents were asked to rate the usability and acceptability of the app.
resultsThe process resulted in a self-monitoring smartphone app that allows adolescent users to track and set goals for the Big 6 health behaviors, using in-app rewards and notifications to enhance engagement. The overall adolescent feedback was positive in terms of user-friendly design, content, relevance, and helpfulness. Commonly identified areas for improvement were to increase interactive features and display recorded health behaviors differently to improve interpretability.
conclusionsThe Health4Life app is a co-designed, self-monitoring smartphone app for adolescents that concurrently targets the Big 6 lifestyle behaviors. Adolescents rated the app as highly acceptable and usable. The app has the potential to efficiently and effectively modify important risk factors for chronic disease among young people and is currently being evaluated in a world-first trial of 6640 secondary school students in 71 schools across Australia.
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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.