Group effects have been used in healthcare programme design. A local example illustrating the use of group effects is the Million kg Challenge™ organised by the Singapore Health Promotion Board [HPB] to motivate locals to better manage their body weight. The Challenge included motivation strategy for each individual to achieve group results, with a buddy or three to four persons and even as part of his or her company which has signed up as a corporate participant (HPB, 2015).
The concept of group effect in this study is operationally defined as the influence of subjective norms on one to pursue healthy lifestyle. Ajzen (1985, 1991) defined subjective norm as one’s perceived normative views of others. One is motivated to behave …show more content…
The model posits that appeal is determined extrinsically by device technological offerings in terms of ergonomic quality and hedonic quality as well as intrinsically from individual customisation effects and group effects, and that appeal is positively related to healthy walking, healthy eating and good health outcomes. The experiment will attempt to measure and compare the effectiveness of the four hypothesized Appeal determinants and the mediating effects of intrinsic motivations on extrinsic factors.
<Insert Figure 1 here>
Accordingly the following hypotheses are posed, with appeal factor for manual trackers being group effects and appeal factors for Fitbit trackers being device technological offerings (i.e. EQ and IQ), customisation effects and group effects.
Hypothesis 1:
Compared to the participants who manually monitor their walking, the effect of Appeal on (i) healthy walking and (ii) good health outcomes will be higher for the participants who use the Fitbit to monitor their walking.
Hypothesis 2:
Compared to the participants who manually monitor their food intake, the effect of Appeal on (i) healthy eating and (ii) good health outcomes will be higher for the participants who use the Fitbit to monitor their food intake.
Hypothesis …show more content…
Walking is selected as the first healthy lifestyle activity as it is an exercise activity which anyone could embark on easily (HPB, 2015). Healthy eating is the other selected activity and measured through tracking food intake. Approval from NTU Institutional Review Board on the research design and survey questionnaire will be obtained prior to conducting the experiment.
Participants
To calculate the sample size needed to form the six groups of participants, I used the G* Power software offered by the Heinrich Heine Universität to conduct an a priori analysis to allow statistical analysis of main effects and interactions at 95 percent confidence level with five percent margin of error and medium effects at f =0.25. The required sample size is computed to be 400 participants. To meet this and ensure comparable sample size of each group, there will be 70 participants in each group, bringing the total number of participants to 420.
Pilot
Convenience sampling will be used to recruit the pilot participants for a two-week pilot. The pilot participants will be requested to provide comments on the experimental stimuli and the survey questionnaire at the end of the