Fluctuations in mHealth engagement following receipt of goal-discrepant feedback messages
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Objective: Digital behavior change interventions can successfully promote change in behavioral outcomes, but often suffer from steep decreases in engagement over time, which hampers their effectiveness. Providing feedback on goal performance is an established technique to promote goal attainment; however, theory indicates that sending goal-discrepant feedback messages could cause some users to respond more negatively than others. This analysis assessed whether goal-discrepant messaging was negatively associated with participant engagement, and if this relationship was exacerbated by baseline depressive symptoms within the context of a three-month weight loss pilot mHealth intervention. Methods: = 52 participants (78.8% female, 61.5% white, ages 21-35) to assess the likelihood of reading consecutive program messages following receipt of messages with goal-discrepant content. Results: Receipt of goal-discrepant messages was associated with a significantly lower likelihood (RR = 0.89) of participants reading the next program message sent, compared to receiving positive/neutral messages or no message, but these relationships were not influenced by depressive symptoms in this sample. Conclusion: Feedback on goal performance remains an important behavior change technique; however, sending push messages that alert participants to their goal-discrepant status seems to reduce the likelihood that participants will read future program messages. Sending messages containing positive or neutral content does not seem to carry this negative risk among individuals in goal-discrepant states.
Source: Digital Health
Language: English
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,000
Funders: Center for Strategic Scientific Initiatives, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Nutrition Obesity Research Center, University of North Carolina, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
OpenAlex ID: W4406230432