The SMART Study, a Mobile Health and Citizen Science Methodological Platform for Active Living Surveillance,...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Digital Health
• Citizen Science

Background:

• Physical inactivity is a global health crisis, contributing to significant healthcare costs.
• Traditional approaches to combating inactivity are insufficient.
• Ubiquitous technologies like smartphones can be repurposed to engage citizens in promoting active living.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a mobile and citizen science platform for active living surveillance, knowledge translation, and policy interventions (Saskatchewan, let's move and map our activity - SMART Study).
• To enumerate the conceptualization, design, implementation, data collection, and analytical strategies of the SMART Study platform.
• To assess the platform's potential for informing policy interventions.

Main Methods:

• A longitudinal, mixed-methods investigation involving citizen scientists over three years across four seasons.
• Recruitment of 317 adult citizen scientists who used a custom smartphone app (Ethica) for 8 days.
• Collection of objective (sensor-based) and subjective (validated surveys, geo-coded pictures, audio files) data on physical activity, sedentary behavior, motivation, environment perception, and well-being.

Main Results:

• Community voices (pictures, audio) identified intrinsic/extrinsic motivations, social contexts, and environment as key factors.
• Pets and favorable urban design emerged as significant facilitators of active living.
• Work-related screen time was identified as the primary barrier to physical activity.

Conclusions:

• The SMART Study platform demonstrated flexibility in identifying and addressing limitations using empirical evidence.
• Successful implementation of a participant-engaging platform to catalyze policy interventions.
• The platform, initially for surveillance, can be adapted for remote active living interventions, representing a novel approach to behavioral data capture for policy.