ArticleJMIR formative research2022
Effects of a Gamified, Behavior Change Technique-Based Mobile App on Increasing Physical Activity and Reducing Anxiety in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.
Article in JMIR formative research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05466617 (Effects of a Gamified, Behavior Change Technique-Based Mobile App on Increasing Physical Activity and Reducing Anxiety in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder), which is not on this map. Cited by 15 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
Effects of a Gamified, Behavior Change Technique-Based Mobile App on Increasing Physical Activity and Reducing Anxiety in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exercise dose architecture as a precision-informed developmental framework in autism spectrum disorder: a narrative review of mechanisms, sex- and development-related heterogeneity, and clinical translation.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Physical Activity for Anxiety for Autistic People: A Systematic Review.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Pooled it
- Digital Behavior Change Intervention Designs for Habit Formation: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- A Survey on Autism Care, Diagnosis, and Intervention Based on Mobile Apps Focusing on Usability and Software Design.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Pooled it
- Gamification Elements in Physical Activity Interventions: Scoping Review and Taxonomy Based on the Octalysis Framework.JMIR serious games · 2026Review
- User experiences of the mobile stress autism mate (SAM) application: a qualitative study among autistic adults not receiving mental health care.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- Flow in screen-based gamified virtual reality sports: development and validation of a behaviorally anchored proxy rating scale for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Robust forecasting of sedentary bouts in chronic pelvic pain disorders for on-device learning and real-time deployment.npj women's health · 2026Article
- Beyond accessibility: co-designing mHealth to bridge the physical activity gap for people with disabilities.mHealth · 2026Article
- A Gamified mHealth App to Promote Physical Activity and Reduce Sedentary Behavior in Autistic Adults: Protocol for a Remotely Delivered Pilot Intervention Study.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Exercise Interventions for Autistic People: An Integrative Review of Evidence from Clinical Trials.Current psychiatry reports · 2025Review
- Co-creating the Stress Autism Mate (SAM): development of an mHealth application for autistic adults using a design thinking approach.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- Smartphone-based serious games for mental health: a scoping review.Multimedia tools and applications · 2024Article
- Developing cue-behavior association for habit formation: A qualitative study to explore the role of avatar in hypertension.Digital healthArticle
- Fit-for-purpose Psychological Interventions to Support the Well-Being of Autistic Adults: A Systematic Review.Autism & developmental language impairmentsReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPhysical activity (PA) has an impact on physical and mental health in neurotypical populations, and addressing these variables may improve the prevalent burden of anxiety in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Gamified mobile apps using behavior change techniques present a promising way of increasing PA and reducing sedentary time, thus reducing anxiety in adults with ASD.
objectiveThis study aimed to compare the effectiveness of a gamified and behavior change technique-based mobile app, PuzzleWalk, versus a commercially available app, Google Fit, on increasing PA and reducing sedentary time as an adjunct anxiety treatment for this population.
methodsA total of 24 adults with ASD were assigned to either the PuzzleWalk or Google Fit group for 5 weeks using a covariate-adaptive randomization design. PA and anxiety were assessed over 7 days at 3 different data collection periods (ie, baseline, intervention start, and intervention end) using triaxial accelerometers and the Beck Anxiety Inventory. Group differences in outcome variables were assessed using repeated-measures analysis of covariance, adjusting for age, sex, and BMI.
resultsThe findings indicated that the PuzzleWalk group spent a significantly longer amount of time on app use compared with the Google Fit group (F
conclusionsFurther research is needed to clarify the determinants of physical and mental health and their interrelationship in adults with ASD to identify the factors that facilitate the use and adoption of mobile health technologies in these individuals. Despite these mixed results, the small changes in PA or anxiety may be clinically significant for adults with ASD.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT05466617; https://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT05466617.
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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.