Yetişkin Bireylerde Diyet ve Fiziksel Aktivite Mobil Uygulama Kullanımının Değerlendirilmesi

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine how adult users are affected by the use of diet and physical activity mobile applications, how they perceive mobile applications and to investigate the relationship between application use and changes in nutrition and physical activity. 301 people (138 mobile application users and 163 non–users) between the ages of 18 and 65 participated in the study. The general characteristics of individuals, self-reported behavioral changes, perceived effectiveness associated with application use and their views on the usability of mobile applications were evaluated through a questionnaire. In the Qing Wang et al. (2016) study, the questionnaire was developed from focus group discussions and focused only on mobile diet and physical activity applications. It was conducted reliably and was obtained with the written permission of the responsible researcher. The questionnaire has adapted to Turkish with the method proposed by Brislin et al. (1973). Users completed the entire questionnaire consisting of 4 sections, non-users 1., 2., and 4. the sections responded. The mean age of the individuals was 36.1±10.91 years. There was no significant difference between the body mass index (BMI) classes of mobile application users and non-users (p>0.05). More than half of the users found mobile applications effective in facilitating their healthy diet and activities. More than half of mobile diet application users felt that mobile diet apps were effective in helping them eat less fatty dairy products (69.6%) and less processed meat products (72.8%), more fruits and vegetables (73.9%), less fast food (76.1%), choose healthier food products (80.4%), and drink less sugary drinks (80.4%). The majority of mobile diet application users found mobile diet apps effective compared to specific diets (78.3%) and learning about healthy food choices from television, books or the internet (84.8%). The majority of mobile physical activity application users found that mobile physical activity apps effectively helped them increase the time devoted to exercise (86.9%), exercise more often (87.8%), and increase the intensity of exercises (85.0%) and diversify activities (85.0%). The majority of mobile physical activity application users found mobile physical activity applications effective compared to consulting personal trainers (72.9%), going to sports centers (73.8%) and individual exercise courses (69.1%). Those who used both diet and physical activity mobile applications perceived the applications more effective in increasing the time, frequency, intensity and variety of exercise compared to those who used only the mobile physical activity application (p<0.05). Diet and physical activity mobile applications were perceived to be more effective when used for a long time compared to short-term use (p<0.05). Adherence to using mobile applications did not affect the perception of users (p>0.05). In general, both diet and physical activity mobile application users were found to be more likely to do and maintain some nutrition and physical activity behaviors than non-users (p<0.05). It was found that those who only used mobile physical activity applications were more likely to increase their overall physical activity in the last 12 months than those who did not use them (p<0.05). The results demonstrated the potential of diet and physical activity mobile applications to improve health. However, randomized controlled trials using mobile application data that include actual food consumption and physical activity changes rather than perceived changes are needed to confirm the strengths of the reported effects.