Using Smartphone applications to influence daily decisions about physical activity among low income older Latino adults

This study adapted and tested Smartphone applications that had previously been tested in English to Spanish for use by Latinos. The Smartphones apps harness three different motivational domains (cognitive, affective and social) to prompt decisions to increase daily minutes of walking. This study used a randomized controlled design in which up to 40 low-income mid-life and older Latino men and women who are currently insufficiently active were assigned to one of the three intervention groups or a daily mood and health behavior tracking control group.  All participants used the Smartphones for two months, with the first week devoted to training on the Smartphone platform and collection of baseline accelerometry data (i.e., objective activity monitor) using the Smartphone's accelerometer. Participants assigned to the intervention apps received app-specific training at the end of the first week.  In addition the researchers conducted elicitation research on a sub group of the study participants to determine if they would be willing and able to use an innovative technology - SenseCam (a wearable camera that takes pictures of the environment automatically) - to contextualize the environment in which they live and are active. The SenseCam was worn during waking hours for one day.