Open AccessTailoring digital apps to support active ageing in a low income community
Author(s) -
Paula Costa Castro,
Lua Bonadio Romano,
David M. Frohlich,
Lorena Jorge Lorenzi,
Lucas Bueno de Campos,
Andresa Paixão,
Patrícia Bet,
Marije Deutekom,
B.J.A. Kröse,
Victor Zuniga Dourado,
Grace Angélica de Oliveira Gomes
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0242192
Subject(s) - focus group , active ageing , physical activity , internet privacy , psychology , gerontology , multimedia , applied psychology , computer science , older people , medicine , business , physical medicine and rehabilitation , marketing
Despite physical activity being one of the determinants of healthy aging, older people tend to become less active over the years. Maintaining physical activity levels during the life course is a motivational challenge. Digital tools have been used to change this pattern, such as smartphone applications to support physical activity; but there is a lack of in-depth research on the diversity of user’s experiences, especially considering older users or non-users of information and communication technologies. Objective: Our goal was to identify requirements for designing a mobile app to encourage physical activity in a low-income community population of older people in Brazil (i.e. over 40 years old). Method: We conducted a qualitative focus group study, involving by co-design of a physical activity application (Pacer) ® . Seventeen volunteers were divided into 2 focus groups of physical active and insufficiently active, and 2 further 4 subgroups in each characterised by digital engagement. The following procedures were performed: (i) baseline assessments; (ii) a focus group with physically active older people and a focus group with insufficiently active older people (iii) design activities with both groups to re-design Pacer. Results: Developing physical activity apps for older people should consider the following features: free application, simple interface, motivational messages using audio and visual information, sharing information among users, multimedia input and sharing and user customisation. In particular, we recommend that exercise apps in low-income communities be tailored to our four categories of users differing in baseline physical activity and digital engagement, to match the social and behavioural preferences we discovered.