Health behaviours and mobile intervention use in patients recruited from general practitioners' practices in rural...

Introduction: Individuals living in rural areas report poorer health outcomes, including obesity, compared to individuals living in urban areas. Amongst others, this is due to restricted access to opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity. Interventions are urgently needed to address this gap. It is yet unclear whether digital interventions are suited for this purpose. The present dataset provides information on adults residing in rural Germany regarding their health status, perceived access to opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity, and digital device ownership and intervention use. Materials and methods: A pen-and-paper survey was conducted in winter 2022/2023 among patients of five general practitioners' practices in rural Bavaria. Materials and data are openly available for future use. Data description: The dataset contains responses from N = 273 individuals (54.9% women, 44.8% men, 0.4% diverse; age M = 51.3, SD = 16.7; BMI M = 29.1, SD = 15.9). On average, 30.6 participants failed to respond to any given item (SD = 33.0; range 1-136). Eighty-four percent had access to the internet and a computer and 91.4% owned a smartphone, but the majority (58.5%/ 84.2%) had no prior experience with mobile physical activity or dietary interventions, respectively. Discussion: This dataset provides insights into barriers and facilitators to healthy eating and physical activity in rural populations and digital (health) technology use. It provides starting points for behavioural weight management interventions in rural areas.