Personalization of Intervention Timing for Physical Activity: Scoping Review (Preprint)

Abstract

The use of sensors in smartphones, smartwatches, or wearable devices has facilitated the personalization of interventions to increase users' physical activity (PA). Recent research has focused on evaluating the effects of personalized interventions in improving PA among users. However, it is critical to deliver the intervention at an appropriate time to each user to increase the likelihood of adoption of the intervention. Earlier review studies have not focused on the personalization of intervention timing for increasing PA.

This review aimed to: (1) examine studies of information technology (IT) based PA interventions with personalized intervention timing (PIT); (2) identify inputs (e.g., user's location) used by the system for generating the PIT, the techniques/methods for generating the PIT, the content of the PA intervention, delivery mode of the intervention; and (3) identify gaps in the current literature and suggest future research directions.

A scoping review was undertaken using PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases based on a structured search query. The main inclusion criteria were that the study: (1) aimed to promote PA; (2) included some form of PIT; and (3) used some form of IT for delivery of the intervention to the user. If deemed relevant, articles were included in this review after removing duplicates and examining the title, abstract, and full-text of the shortlisted articles.

The literature search resulted in 18 eligible studies. In this review, 13 studies focused on increasing PA in the primary objective, while it was the secondary focus in the remaining studies. The inputs used to generate the PIT were categorized as user preference, activity level, schedule, location, and predicted patterns. Based on the intervention technique, studies were classified as manual, semiautomated, or automated. Of these, the automated interventions were either knowledge-based (based on rules or guidelines) or data-driven. Only 6 studies have evaluated the effectiveness of the intervention and reported positive outcomes.

This work reviewed studies on PIT for PA interventions and identified several aspects of the interventions, i.e., inputs, techniques, contents, and delivery mode. The reviewed studies evaluated PIT in conjunction with other personalization approaches, such as activity recommendation, with no study evaluating the effectiveness of PIT alone. Based on the findings, several important directions for future research are also highlighted in this review.