Examining the use of evidence-based and social media supported tools in freely accessible physical activity intervention websites

Abstract

Background: It has been shown that physical activity is more likely to increase if web-based interventions apply evidence-based components (e.g. self-monitoring) and incorporate interactive social media applications (e.g. social networking), but it is unclear to what extent these are being utilized in the publicly available web-based physical activity interventions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether freely accessible websites delivering physical activity interventions use evidence-based behavior change techniques and provide social media applications.Methods: In 2013, a systematic search strategy examined 750 websites. Data was extracted on a wide range of variables (e.g. sel..