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The Effect of Physical Activity Interventions Comprising Wearables and Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Overview of attention for article published in Sports Medicine - Open, September 2018
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (93rd percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (75th percentile)

Mentioned by

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1 news outlet
blogs
1 blog
policy
1 policy source
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24 X users

Citations

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198 Dimensions

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351 Mendeley
Title
The Effect of Physical Activity Interventions Comprising Wearables and Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Published in
Sports Medicine - Open, September 2018
DOI 10.1186/s40798-018-0157-9
Pubmed ID
Authors

Roxanne Gal, Anne M. May, Elon J. van Overmeeren, Monique Simons, Evelyn M. Monninkhof

Abstract

Worldwide physical activity levels of adults are declining, which is associated with increased chronic disease risk. Wearables and smartphone applications offer new opportunities to change physical activity behaviour. This systematic review summarizes the evidence regarding the effect of wearables and smartphone applications on promoting physical activity. PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane databases were searched for RCTs, published since January 2008, on wearables and smartphone applications to promote physical activity. Studies were excluded when the study population consisted of children or adolescents, the intervention did not promote physical activity or comprised a minor part of the intervention, or the intervention was Internet-based and not accessible by smartphone. Risk of bias was assessed by the Cochrane collaboration tool. The primary outcome was changed in physical activity level. Meta-analyses were performed to assess the pooled effect on (moderate-to-vigorous) physical activity in minutes per day and daily step count. Eighteen RCTs were included. Use of wearables and smartphone applications led to a small to moderate increase in physical activity in minutes per day (SMD = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.03 to 0.82; I2 = 85%) and a moderate increase in daily step count (SMD = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.12 to 0.91; I2 = 90%). When removing studies with an unclear or high risk of bias, intervention effects improved and statistical heterogeneity was removed. This meta-analysis showed a small to moderate effect of physical activity interventions comprising wearables and smartphone applications on physical activity. Hence, wearables and smartphone applications are likely to bring new opportunities in delivering tailored interventions to increase levels of physical activity.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 24 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 351 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 351 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 53 15%
Student > Master 49 14%
Student > Bachelor 47 13%
Researcher 28 8%
Student > Doctoral Student 12 3%
Other 49 14%
Unknown 113 32%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Sports and Recreations 40 11%
Nursing and Health Professions 38 11%
Psychology 32 9%
Medicine and Dentistry 32 9%
Social Sciences 18 5%
Other 54 15%
Unknown 137 39%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 35. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 27 March 2023.
All research outputs
#1,025,446
of 23,462,326 outputs
Outputs from Sports Medicine - Open
#91
of 489 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#23,447
of 336,567 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Sports Medicine - Open
#3
of 12 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,462,326 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 489 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 25.2. This one has done well, scoring higher than 81% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 336,567 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 12 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 75% of its contemporaries.