The effects of a smartphone application intervention to stimulate fruit and vegetable intake

Abstract

Background: In a randomized controlled trial, we tested the efficacy of an intervention delivered via a smartphone application that communicated either textual or auditory persuasive health information. Methods: After downloading the smartphone application, respondents were exposed to either text-based or audio-based tailored health information and feedback over a period of six months. In addition, a control condition was added in which respondents completed only the baseline and post-test measures. Within a community sample (N = 146), self-reported fruit and vegetable intake at six-month follow-up was our primary outcome measure. Findings: A significantly higher fruit intake was found after exposure to the auditory information, especially in recipients with a poor perceived own health. In addition, a significantly higher vegetable intake was found for recipients with high health literacy after exposure to one of the interventions, whereas it was the highest in the control condition for low health literacy recipients. Discussion: Auditory persuasive health information can lead to behavior change via our smartphone application. It is however worthwhile to investigate how recipients with low health literacy can benefit from persuasive health information.