Non-professional runners make extensive use of consumer-available wearable devices and smartphone apps to monitor training sessions, health, and physical performance. Despite the popularity of these products, they usually neglect subjective factors, such as psychosocial stress, unexpected daily physical (in)activity, sleep quality perception, and/or previous injuries. Consequently, the implementation of these products may lead to underperformance, reduced motivation, and running-related injuries. This paper investigates how the integration of subjective training, off-training, and contextual factors from a 24/7 perspective might lead to better individual screening and health protection methods for recreational runners. Using an online-based Ecological Momentary Assessment survey, a seven-day cohort study was conducted. Twenty participants answered daily surveys three times a day regarding subjective off-training and contextual data; e.g., health, sleep, stress, training, environment, physiology, and lifestyle factors. The results show that daily habits of people are unstructured, unlikely predictable, and influenced by factors, such as the demands of work, social life, leisure time, or sleep. By merging these factors with sensor-based data, running-related systems would be able to better assess the individual workload of recreational runners and support them to reduce their risk of suffering from running-related injuries
PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine changes in physical activity, nutrition, sleep behaviour and body composition in wheelchair users with a chronic disability after 12 weeks of using the WHEELS mHealth application (app).METHODS: A 12-week pre-post intervention study was performed, starting with a 1-week control period. Physical activity and sleep behaviour were continuously measured with a Fitbit charge 3. Self-reported nutritional intake, body mass and waist circumference were collected. Pre-post outcomes were compared with a paired-sample t-test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Fitbit data were analysed with a mixed model or a panel linear model. Effect sizes were determined and significance was accepted at p < .05. RESULTS: Thirty participants completed the study. No significant changes in physical activity (+1.5 √steps) and sleep quality (-9.7 sleep minutes; -1.2% sleep efficiency) were found. Significant reduction in energy (-1022 kJ, d = 0.71), protein (-8.3 g, d = 0.61) and fat (-13.1 g, d = 0.87) intake, body mass (-2.2 kg, d = 0.61) and waist circumference (-3.3 cm, d = 0.80) were found. CONCLUSION: Positive changes were found in nutritional behaviour and body composition, but not in physical activity and sleep quality. The WHEELS app seems to partly support healthy lifestyle behaviour.Implications for RehabilitationHealthy lifestyle promotion is crucial, especially for wheelchair users as they tend to show poorer lifestyle behaviour despite an increased risk of obesity and comorbidity.The WHEELS lifestyle app seems to be a valuable tool to support healthy nutrition choices and weight loss and to improve body satisfaction, mental health and vitality.
