The combination of self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching in healthy lifestyle interventions is a promising approach. The objective of this study is to map the key components of existing healthy lifestyle interventions combining self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching using the scoping review methodology in accordance with the York methodological framework by Arksey and O’Malley. Seven studies were included in this preliminary scoping review. Components related to persuasive eCoaching applied only in effective interventions were reduction of complex behavior into small steps, providing positive motivational feedback by praise and providing reliable information to show expertise. Concerning self-tracking, it did not seem to matter if more action was required by the participant to obtain personal data. The first results of this study indicate the necessity to identify the needs and problems of the specific target group of the interventions, due to differences found between various groups of users. In addition to objective data on lifestyle and health behavior, other factors need to be taken into account, such as the context of use, daily experiences, and feelings of the users.
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The enhancement of GPS technology enables the use of GPS devices not only as navigation and orientation tools, but also as instruments used to capture travelled routes: as sensors that measure activity on a city scale or the regional scale. TU Delft developed a process and database architecture for collecting data on pedestrian movement in three European city centres, Norwich, Rouen and Koblenz, and in another experiment for collecting activity data of 13 families in Almere (The Netherlands) for one week. The question posed in this paper is: what is the value of GPS as ‘sensor technology’ measuring activities of people? The conclusion is that GPS offers a widely useable instrument to collect invaluable spatial-temporal data on different scales and in different settings adding new layers of knowledge to urban studies, but the use of GPS-technology and deployment of GPS-devices still offers significant challenges for future research.
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