Title
Design Considerations for Social Fitness Applications: Comparing Chronically Ill Patients and Healthy Adults.
Abstract
This paper presents findings from a two-month comparative study involving a total of 36 participants using a social fitness application called HealthyTogether. Our aim was to understand whether and how patients with chronic diseases and healthy adults respond differently to social incentives, such as competition, cooperation, and accountability, and how these incentives could relate to their engagement in physical activities. We found that community leaderboard served different goals: healthy adults mainly used it to compete with others, and patients used it to validate their normalcy. For the patients, pairing up with strong ties fostered fulfilling fitness goals, while exercising with strangers diminished them. This study shows that social fitness application design for patients should take into account their need for support from communities and close relationships. Furthermore, our findings point towards opportunities for leveraging and modifying existing social fitness applications for patients' health management.
Year
DOI
Venue
2017
10.1145/2998181.2998350
CSCW
Keywords
Field
DocType
Fitness applications, social incentives, patients, self-management, community, social relationships
Social psychology,Institutional repository,Social relationship,Incentive,Health management system,Self-management,Psychology,Accountability
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
20
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Yu Chen1435.38
Yunan Chen296.67
Mirana Michelle Randriambelonoro300.34
Antoine Geissbuhler481549.75
Pearl Pu52097143.34