At the moment my team is planning a test. Every participant gets a smartphone, a blood pressure meter, a body scale and a pedometer.
For one week everyone has to measure with all the devices. Vital parameters are then collected on a database (connection via smartphone).
Second week we want to motivate the people to more physical activity by showing them their parameters in diagrams (smartphone app) and motivating text messages.
So we have to get as many motivating text messages as possible. Sadly I didn't find any list, so we just got a few ideas like "What about a walk in the park with your dog?". Additionally we want to flag these motivating texts like "just for dog owners".
Does anyone have some ideas how to motivate people (age = 45 +/- 10)?
If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
Interesting study. Can I ask whether this is a preventative or treatment-based initiative? If it is treatment-based you can potentially profile the participants on some measure of behaviour regulation and select specific motivational scripts. If it is preventative-based then you have a more difficult prospect - potentially sending ineffective messages to participants.
Basing the motivational profile on a specific theory or framework, TTM or SDT perhaps, would allow you to refine the content of the messages to specific participant groups, or at least ensure you are sending a broad range of messages to your whole cohort of which at least some are relevant to each participant..
At the moment (in this test) we're using it preventative. Though after the tests it's planed to support another treatment. So this shall be an addition for patients (e.g. obesity or diabetes) to the main therapy.
I guess, it's to weak to be utilized as "stand-alone" therapy. Also if this concept tried to prevent illness / keep the peoples' healthiness, I cannot imagine our motivations texts and diagrams (showing their parameters) to be strong enough to also make these healthy people more physically active. Invectiveness would be enormous.
Sadly, our chair got no special motivation expert at the moment. So I have to acquaint myself with this theories in detail first. Currently, we're just collecting idea.
My first impressions make me believe that the TTM fits quite well. We could analyze the people and find out this way on which level of motivation they are.
I agree that TTM might help you classify the individuals within your cohort into loose groups based on their behaviour. But TTM is somewhat silent on the specific interventions you might need to employ to progress or maintain PA motivation. TTM is your framework but you'll still need a theoretically driven intervention programme. If you're focussing on motivation then I would suggest SDM as it is widely accepted and accessibly published. I've got a general framework on how these two relate, DM me your email if you want me to send anything through.
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