Health Behavior Theory in Popular Calorie Counting Apps: A Content Analysis

BACKGROUND: Although the Health & Fitness category of the Apple App Store features hundreds of calorie counting apps, the extent to which popular calorie counting apps include health behavior theory is unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates the presence of health behavior theory in calorie cou...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Davis, Siena F, Ellsworth, Marisa A, Payne, Hannah E, Hall, Shelby M, West, Joshua H, Nordhagen, Amber L
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications Inc. 2016
Materias:
Short Paper
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4795330/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26935898
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.4177
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author Davis, Siena F
Ellsworth, Marisa A
Payne, Hannah E
Hall, Shelby M
West, Joshua H
Nordhagen, Amber L
author_facet Davis, Siena F
Ellsworth, Marisa A
Payne, Hannah E
Hall, Shelby M
West, Joshua H
Nordhagen, Amber L
author_sort Davis, Siena F
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Although the Health & Fitness category of the Apple App Store features hundreds of calorie counting apps, the extent to which popular calorie counting apps include health behavior theory is unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates the presence of health behavior theory in calorie counting apps. METHODS: Data for this study came from an extensive content analysis of the 10 most popular calorie counting apps in the Health & Fitness category of the Apple App Store. RESULTS: Each app was given a theory score to reflect the extent to which health behavior theory was integrated into the app. The highest possible score was 60. Out of the 10 apps evaluated, My Diet Coach obtained the highest theory score of 15. MapMyFitness and Yumget received the lowest scores of 0. The average theory score among the apps was 5.6. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the calorie counting apps in the sample contained minimal health behavior theory.
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spelling pubmed-47953302016-04-07 Health Behavior Theory in Popular Calorie Counting Apps: A Content Analysis Davis, Siena F Ellsworth, Marisa A Payne, Hannah E Hall, Shelby M West, Joshua H Nordhagen, Amber L JMIR Mhealth Uhealth Short Paper BACKGROUND: Although the Health & Fitness category of the Apple App Store features hundreds of calorie counting apps, the extent to which popular calorie counting apps include health behavior theory is unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates the presence of health behavior theory in calorie counting apps. METHODS: Data for this study came from an extensive content analysis of the 10 most popular calorie counting apps in the Health & Fitness category of the Apple App Store. RESULTS: Each app was given a theory score to reflect the extent to which health behavior theory was integrated into the app. The highest possible score was 60. Out of the 10 apps evaluated, My Diet Coach obtained the highest theory score of 15. MapMyFitness and Yumget received the lowest scores of 0. The average theory score among the apps was 5.6. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the calorie counting apps in the sample contained minimal health behavior theory. JMIR Publications Inc. 2016-03-02 /pmc/articles/PMC4795330/ /pubmed/26935898 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.4177 Text en ©Siena F Davis, Marisa A Ellsworth, Hannah E Payne, Shelby M Hall, Joshua H West, Amber L Nordhagen. Originally published in JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 02.03.2016. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR mhealth and uhealth, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://mhealth.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Short Paper
Davis, Siena F
Ellsworth, Marisa A
Payne, Hannah E
Hall, Shelby M
West, Joshua H
Nordhagen, Amber L
Health Behavior Theory in Popular Calorie Counting Apps: A Content Analysis
title Health Behavior Theory in Popular Calorie Counting Apps: A Content Analysis
title_full Health Behavior Theory in Popular Calorie Counting Apps: A Content Analysis
title_fullStr Health Behavior Theory in Popular Calorie Counting Apps: A Content Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Health Behavior Theory in Popular Calorie Counting Apps: A Content Analysis
title_short Health Behavior Theory in Popular Calorie Counting Apps: A Content Analysis
title_sort health behavior theory in popular calorie counting apps: a content analysis
topic Short Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4795330/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26935898
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.4177
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