A Sustainable mHealth Intervention to Promote Physical Activity for Healthy Aging: A Pilot Study of the “Every Walk You Take” Citizen Science Initiative

Preet Naik, Dolores Álamo-Junquera, Laura Igual, Marc Serrajordi, Albert Pérez, Carles Pericas, Constança Pagès-Fernández, Tarun Reddy Katapally and María Grau ()
Additional contact information
Preet Naik: School of Pharmacy, University College London (UCL), London WC1N 1AX, UK
Dolores Álamo-Junquera: Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Barcelona, 08036 Barcelona, Spain
Laura Igual: Department of Computer Science, School of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
Marc Serrajordi: Department of Computer Science, School of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
Albert Pérez: Department of Computer Science, School of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
Carles Pericas: Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Barcelona, 08036 Barcelona, Spain
Constança Pagès-Fernández: School of Pharmacy, University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Tarun Reddy Katapally: Digital Epidemiology and Population Health Laboratory (DEPtH Lab), School of Health Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
María Grau: Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Barcelona, 08036 Barcelona, Spain

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 13, 1-12

Abstract: The objective of the Every Walk You Take initiative was to co-design and test, in a pilot study, a sustainable mHealth intervention prototype (mobile app) to promote physical activity. This prototype would help to identify the barriers to and facilitators of active living in individuals older than 55 years. A prototype of the intervention was co-designed by a community of stakeholders in Barcelona who were familiar with the social and economic burden of aging in high-income societies. The app’s functionalities included recommendations for healthy routes in the city (parks, pedestrian lanes, and streets) according to environmental variables (air quality and climate) and personal preferences (route difficulty, distance, and geolocation), and ecological momentary assessments (pictures and voice notes) were collected to identify the barriers to and facilitators of performing these routes. To test the app, a pilot study was conducted over two 7-day cycles with citizen scientists recruited at the life-long learning centers of two deprived neighborhoods in Barcelona. A total of 21 citizen scientists (mean age = 67 (standard deviation = 7)), 86% of them female, collected 112 comments and 48 pictures describing their perceived barriers to and facilitators of active living. Every Walk You Take is a new, validated, and sustainable mHealth intervention that is directly involved in health promotion, as it empowers the citizens of Barcelona to play an active role in their own healthcare. This intervention has the potential to be implemented in different cities around the world to collect information on the community determinants of health and health assets.

Keywords: active living; citizen science; healthy aging; physical activity; smart city; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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