Last name 8. DELIVERING AN AUTOMATED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Advancements in technology have shown a significant improvement in the health sector; with the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic, internet, and mobile-based technologies have had a cross-cutting edge in ensuring that individuals and institutions keep up with their daily operations. Real-time information sharing can enable specialists to remotely consult with and monitor patients' health through targeted treatments and advanced medical care, eliminating accessibility barriers, especially for patients with impaired mobility.

Last name 1
DELIVERING AN AUTOMATED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PROGRAM USING INTERNET
AND MOBILE PHONE TECHNOLOGY
Students Name
Course Name and Number
Name of Professor
Institutional Affiliation
Date Submitted
Students Admission number

Last name 2
DELIVERING AN AUTOMATED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PROGRAM USING INTERNET
AND MOBILE PHONE TECHNOLOGY
Advancements in technology have shown a significant improvement in the health sector; with the
onset of the Covid 19 pandemic, internet and mobile-based technologies have had a cross-cutting edge in
ensuring that individuals and institutions keep up with their daily operations. Real-time information
sharing can enable specialists to remotely consult with and monitor patients' health through targeted
treatments and advanced medical care, eliminating accessibility barriers, especially for patients with
impaired mobility.
Digitization provides a collaborative medium where specialists can offer asynchronous
consultations and share accurate information with other medical personnel with electronic medical
records, which positively affects patient care(Mohammed et al., 2019, pp. 1-21). This has ensured
efficiency, especially in monitoring behavioural changes through the intervention program; mobile
applications like the health and fitness apps prompt patients to remember their commitments towards
curbing obesity and overweight by keeping track of unhealthy eating practice and physical activity levels.
According to the 2019 CDC Public health surveillance, which is the cornerstone of public health
practice statistics, the prevalence of obesity and overweight amongst adults was 42.4% in 2017-2018,
showing a significant increase of 11.9% from the last report. Severe obesity rose from 4.7% to 9.2% in
the same period, attributed to the debilitating immune system due to sedentary behaviour, unhealthy diets,
environment, and genetics(Yoon, Pollock, & Foldy, 2020, pp. 439-458). Due to such complexities, a
multifaceted approach needs to be employed to promote healthy living behaviours. The intervention
operated an evidence-based practice using a wrist-based accelerometer to monitor the participants' regular
physical activity, disseminating consistent reminders and real-time feedback, and equally offering therapy
sessions to eliminate recurrent barriers.
Students Admission number

Last name 3
It is essential to acknowledge that good exercise and diet habits are critical towards the
restoration of health and general wellbeing of people suffering from obesity and overweight. This
intervention played a significant role amongst adults aged between 30 to 55 years with a body mass index
(BMI) between 19 -30. The obesity prevalence report revealed that 40.0% of adults between 20-39 years
and 44.8% of adults aged between 40-59 years were the most at-risk adult population affected by
overweight and obesity in the United States(Yoon et al., 2020, pp. 439-458). The intervention
recommended moderate level physical activity for the selected age cohort and incorporating a behaviour
change system to identify barriers to physical activities and offer solutions to encourage commitment.
Behaviour Change Mechanism
Behaviour change is more of a personal commitment and self-initiative through a guided
approach by specialists to achieve an objective end. With the acknowledgement that individuals <50 years
having a high likelihood of using physical activity apps, the ubiquitous nature of mobile and smartphone
technology has shown an effective means for influencing physical activity behaviour. The scope of
obesity and overweight in adults emphasizes personal responsibility, which is pivotal to social, legal and
political policies towards obesity. The initiation of personal responsibility evokes the language of blame
and weakness.
Thorndike's Law of Effect asserts that "responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular
situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting
effect become less likely to occur again in that situation"(Strobach, Englert, Jekauc, Pfeffer, & Health,
2020). When environmental conditions are discomforting, an individual's physical and psychological
filter systems can be eroded by limiting alternatives and override on their freedoms. The intervention
recognizes that self-management strategies to using mobile technology can pose a challenge given the
external factors of environmental influence and breach. As an installed advocacy measure, it helps
participants identify their perceived barriers to physical activities and offer tailored solutions to improve
their commitments.
Students Admission number

Last name 4
Behaviour change is eminent through the intervention attributed to the social comparison theory,
which asserts that people overall engage in upward or downward comparisons, which contributes to their
own social and personal worth based on the results from the intervention. This would contribute to
increased physical activities amongst the participants since individually; they would not want to
experience feelings of dissatisfaction, resentment or even guilt as far as the initiative is concerned.
Festinger (1954) further states that when people want to improve, they tend to compare themselves to
people roughly similar to themselves but are achieving higher weight reduction and adoption of healthy
behaviour than themselves.
Decisional balance also holds a significant role in the behaviour change of most of the
participants. Stigma and discrimination that is directed towards obese people extenuate their social and
self-esteem. With such interventions present themselves, these individuals quickly decide to push
themselves to restore the previous broken social engagement and the "feel good" decision to be proud of
their choices in the long run.
The initiative's policy intervention strategy seeks to bridge the divide in the collective sphere of
the environmental, social, political, health, legislative, and regulatory actions that have thus far not aided
positive results and personal responsibility in supporting responsible behaviour. Through the elaboration
of likelihood theory, participants can engage in physical activities of their choice and are encouraged to
proceed at their own pace; this level of progress gives them time and the ability to pay attention without
feeling rushed in the weight loss process. By granting them the right of personal choice and
responsibility, which constitutes the central route, they can pay attention and develop strong attitudes to
the merits of the established health objectives and hence, they make the best decision that would
contribute to their wellbeing and are more aligned to the intervention objectives even after the period
lapses.
Students Admission number

Last name 5
Goal-Setting theory, through the multifaceted approach used by the intervention, enabled
relaying feedback through the chartrooms and assisted participants in coming up with clear and specific
goals adjustable to realistic levels. This is attributed to the high performance at the end of the nine weeks
program. Locke (1960) asserts that giving participant's feedback is a means of gaining reputation and
making people more involved in any given task; this intern leads to self-efficiency and is, therefore, able
to invest more outstanding efforts towards goal attainment. The participants received periodic feedback
and were given rooms where they could self-initiate and readjust their potency to exhibit strong attitudes
towards positive health outcomes.
Strengths and possible limitations
The intervention encouraged a guided approach by providing motivational tips marching the
participants' level of activity enabling them to break the monotony and acting as a scale-up measure to
picking up with the pace, thus ensuring that the program achieves its pleasing effect upon the participants'
lives. The customary practise strengthens the bond of participants' dispositions and will foster a positive
health outcome since the activity reduces the discomforting effect.
Through the automated dialogue therapy, the intervention enabled the participants to practice
learning drills by guiding them to identify situations that would interfere with their planned sessions. This
flexible approach ensured that the participants keep an open mind to identifying barriers that would
interfere with the program's efficiency. This was in tandem with the law of readiness, which proposes that
when individuals are mentally prepared, they can triumph in difficult situations.
The interactive nature of the system also contributed to its being efficient for the intervention;
real-time feedback positively influenced the participants' perception of the intervention. They reported a
substantial loss of body fats and reduced BMI compared to the control group(McCarroll, Eyles, &
Mhurchu, 2017, pp. 156-168). This shows that the internet-based behaviour change system had positive
Students Admission number

Last name 6
health outcomes for the participants. It recorded a rise in physical activity intensity and improved diets,
thus boosting the overall health of the sedentary population.
Despite the notable highlights of the intervention in measuring the effectiveness of the
internet in accelerating physical activity and behaviour change amongst the sedentary population,
there were many delimiting factors towards the objective aim of the program(Rose, 2019). In as
much as the chartrooms provided the participants with feedback on their performance to increase
their awareness levels, participants in the study lacked sufficient social support and solidarity to
ensure that the social pressure is eliminated.
The intervention acknowledges that it only influenced the intentional aspects of the test
group's behaviour with no significant increase in motivational levels. This can be attributed to
the fact that it did not fully consider the adult learning theory that states that adults should be
internally motivated and self-directed to bring life experiences and knowledge to the learning
experience(Chuang, 2021). This would have made them more goal-oriented towards developing
healthy behaviour to ensure the efficacy of the intervention by bridging the perceived hiatus
between their daily practice and that recommended by the intervention.
Though having meaningful content and delivery, the intervention does not intrinsically
elicit the mechanisms of action needed to aid in behaviour change. It is more outcome-oriented
and thus subjective. It does not fully define the population context and environment setting,
which has a harmonious effect on the reach and exposure of the targeted group towards
modelling positive, healthy outcomes.
Recommendations
An ontological approach will systematically develop other interventions' strengths to
boost behaviour change towards curbing obesity and overweight among the sedentary
Students Admission number

Last name 7
population. As much as the intervention was a bolster to previous studies, it should make
concerted efforts to adjust its monitoring outcomes and uncertainties that the accelerometer
cannot measure, to include the pool activities as an effective weight loss measure.
The effectiveness of a behaviour change intervention is measured by the accurate and complete
descriptions of intervention models(Howlett, Trivedi, Troop, & Chater, 2019, pp. 147-157). Therefore,
the sampling procedure should be re-defined to incorporate different factors such as environment and
other demographics contributing to overweight for the study to be generalizable. Recognizing that
behaviour change relies heavily on target behaviour and context incorporates the differential perspective
that the intervention might not explicitly hold across the board in complex environments with limited
resources(Howlett et al., 2019, pp. 147-157).
Further, since there is no clear pointer towards which method had a high confidence degree on behaviour
change effectiveness, the study variables should be measured independently to fully ascertain the strength
of evidence of the health behaviour outcome and inform further studies.
Conclusion
This intervention provides evidence that internet and mobile technology usage can deliver an
automated physical activity program through mapping out the behaviour change technique and effective
utilization of Grol and Wensing implementation of the behaviour change model. The development and
implementation of other complementary behaviour change intervention programs can enhance the fight
against obesity and overweight steadily rising over the past decade.
It informed the delivery style on behaviour change intervention by providing an evidence-based
approach to practicability and applicability. Automated digitalized strategies help specialists devise a
more systematic approach towards seamless monitoring and advanced diagnosis measures to fight the
menace.
Students Admission number

Last name 8
References
Chuang, S. J. P. I. (2021). The Applications of Constructivist Learning Theory and Social
Learning Theory on Adult Continuous Development.
Howlett, N., Trivedi, D., Troop, N. A., & Chater, A. M. J. T. b. m. (2019). Are physical activity
interventions for healthy inactive adults effective in promoting behavior change and
maintenance, and which behavior change techniques are effective? A systematic review
and meta-analysis. 9(1), 147-157.
McCarroll, R., Eyles, H., & Mhurchu, C. N. J. P. M. (2017). Effectiveness of mobile health
(mHealth) interventions for promoting healthy eating in adults: A systematic review. 105,
156-168.
Mohammed, K., Zaidan, A., Zaidan, B., Albahri, O., Alsalem, M., Albahri, A., . . . Hashim, M. J.
J. o. m. s. (2019). Real-time remote-health monitoring systems: a review on patients
prioritization for multiple-chronic diseases, taxonomy analysis, concerns and solution
procedure. 43(7), 1-21.
Rose, D. J. (2019). Physical activity instruction of older adults, 2e: Human Kinetics.
Strobach, T., Englert, C., Jekauc, D., Pfeffer, I. J. P. E., & Health. (2020). Predicting adoption
and maintenance of physical activity in the context of dual-process theories. 100162.
Yoon, P., Pollock, D., & Foldy, S. (2020). National Public Health Informatics, United States. In
Public Health Informatics and Information Systems (pp. 439-458): Springer.
Students Admission number