Development and pilot evaluation of a mobile app on parent-child exercises to improve physical activity and psychosocial outcomes of Hong Kong Chinese children.

BACKGROUND: Parent-child exercises involve children and parents to do workout together and have positive effects on physical and mental health. We developed a mobile app on parent-child exercises called Family Move, which combines coaching videos with game features such as points and level system to enhance the health and wellbeing of both children and parents through parent-child exercises. This pilot pre-post study investigated whether the Family Move app-based intervention had a positive effect on children's health-related quality of life (HRQOL), psychosocial wellbeing, and physical activity (PA) level. METHODS: We recruited 67 parent-child pairs. During the 8-week intervention, these pairs were invited to perform parent-child exercises using the Family Move app. Points were automatically added to the user account after viewing a coaching video. In-game ranking was available to enhance user engagement. Parent proxy-report questionnaires on children's HRQOL, psychosocial wellbeing, and PA were administered at baseline and 1- and 6-month follow-up. Paired samples t-tests were conducted to evaluate post-intervention changes in child outcomes (HRQOL, psychosocial wellbeing, and PA). Multiple linear regressions were used to examine these changes as a function of in-game ranking. RESULTS: 52 (78%) viewed at least one coaching video in the Family Move app. Children's PA level significantly increased at 1-month (d = 0.32, p = 0.030) and 6-month (d = 0.30, p = 0.042) follow-up, whereas their psychosocial problems declined at 6-month follow-up (d = 0.35, p = 0.005). Higher in-game ranking was significantly associated with fewer psychosocial problems at 1-month follow-up (ß = - 0.15, p = 0.030). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the Family Move app could be a possible intervention to increase children's PA level and psychosocial wellbeing through parent-child exercise. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03279354 , registered September 11, 2017 (Prospectively registered).

Usability Testing of a Smartphone Application for Delivering Qigong Training.

A Qigong App was designed to promote a more flexible mode of delivering qigong training than face-to-face, with which individuals can access to this mind-body aerobic exercise more readily. The objective of the study was to examine the usability and acceptance of the App. Target participants were Cantonese- or Putonghua-speaking adults and owned a smartphone. First we conducted a pilot trial with 14 participants to examine the navigation feature of the App, followed by a main test. In the main test, another 100 participants reviewed the Qigong App and filled in a questionnaire on usability (System Usability Scale) and user acceptance (i.e., attitude, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, intention to use, and satisfaction), of which 89 completed the same questionnaire in a two-week interval. Qualitative feedback yielded from the pilot trial was summarized, and descriptive statistics, t-tests, and linear regressions were used in quantitative data analysis of the main test. The mean composite usability score in the main test was satisfactory (77.62 out of 100). Descriptive analyses showed that the majority of users found the Qigong App pleasant, user friendly, and useful for learning qigong. Participants indicated positive ratings for the items assessing usability and acceptance of the App. Regression results showed that certain characteristics predicted the ratings for some items, e.g., age as a predictor of scores of usability and perceived ease of use. The study provided researchers and practitioners with evidence of the usability and acceptance of an alternative qigong training mode that can enhance participants' access and motivation to practice qigong.