Technologies to Measure and Modify Physical Activity and Eating Environments
Introduction
The advent of the personal computer, mobile communication devices, and related electronic innovations has heralded previously unheard of opportunities for impacting personal and population health. Among such technologic advances are the assessment, integration, and interpretation of massive amounts of diverse information about individuals (e.g., capture of real-time physiologic responses across a range of biological systems), as well as the environment (e.g., geographic information system [GIS] and global positioning system [GPS]). Complementing these advances have been innovations in communication media that have substantively changed the ways in which people live, work, and play.
Technologic innovation has left virtually no scientific domain untouched, including the health behavior arena. For more than a decade, technologic innovations have contributed to understanding and improving eating and activity behaviors and the social and built environmental determinants that shape them.1
The purpose of this paper is to highlight current and emerging trends in health behavior−relevant built environment assessment and intervention, with an emphasis on applications to active living and healthy eating. A team of experts was convened in 2013 for this purpose. Although this article is not exhaustive and is a selective examination of published literature, it covers a number of the major technologic developments that are being applied in studying and improving built and social environments related to eating and activity. In this context, environment is conceptualized broadly as “the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded … as well as the aggregate of social and cultural conditions that influence the life of an individual or community” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, www.m-w.com).
Two general levels of impact are highlighted: the “me” domain, which targets measurement and intervention activities aimed primarily at individual-level behaviors and their surrounding environments; and the “we” domain, which incorporates aggregated data aimed at groups and larger population segments and locales.2 These two domains, although not mutually exclusive, have grown out of different traditions and objectives. The article ends with challenges and opportunities concerning the most promising avenues for harnessing technology to promote potentially paradigm-shifting science in the obesity prevention and health behavior−environmental arenas.
Section snippets
The “Me” Domain: Person-Level Contexts and Behaviors
The “me” domain, rooted in the “Quantified Self” movement and similar consumer- or patient-driven self-awareness practices,3 captures individuals’ personal contexts and perceptions of their behaviors, health, and environments, typically in what can approximate real time. The increasing availability of smartphones and other mobile and wearable health- and behavior-related devices provides many opportunities for assessing a broad range of behaviors, health statuses, social interactions, and the
Targeting the “Me” Domain
Despite an explosion of mobile apps aimed at individual health promotion and disease management,46 relatively few have been evaluated systematically for scientific accuracy, efficacy, and long-term behavioral maintenance and use (examples in “me” and “we” domains shown in Table 1). Reviews of apps aimed at physical activity and dietary change indicate that, although promising for their wide reach, customized messages, and continuity, rigorous evaluation of the sustained effectiveness of such
Other Emerging Technologies in the Field
Given that the current article was not meant to be an exhaustive review, other emerging technology platforms with potential to significantly shape the health behavior and obesity prevention fields could not be discussed in detail. Among the types of potentially transformative technology platforms that await further development and testing are Google Glass, Apple’s Healthbook, and Android Wear. These represent just a few of the innovative technologies that hold promise for changing the ways in
Acknowledgments
The work on this paper was supported in part by Public Health Service Grant No. R01HL109222 (King) and National Science Foundation grant No. IIS1237174 (Patrick). This work was also supported by Grant No. 2010-85215-20659 from the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture. These funding groups had no role in any aspect of this manuscript. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Amy Hillier, PhD in
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2016, SSM - Population HealthCitation Excerpt :The increased availability of devices and media (e.g., activity trackers, mobile apps such as Eat Local and MapMyRun) that can link behaviors to environments calls for bringing engineers, computer scientists, database management experts and spatial statisticians to the table. The collaborative involvement of urban planners, engineers, activity and nutrition experts remains rare (King, Glanz, & Patrick, 2015) and is an area in need of development. Another example of a disconnect between disciplines can be seen in the lack of comprehensive conceptual and empirical models of access, for example, to healthy food.
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