Testing tailored weekly feedback messages for behavioral change of people living with diabetes using a mHealth application

Abstract

This paper extends the previous work in the field of persuasive technology as it aims to examine the solutions of interest that have been developed based on cultural preferences through applying persuasive strategies on tailored persuasive messages. We attempted to examine its effectiveness in changing users' behaviour from a cultural perspective. This was achieved by applying the principles of social influence on the tailored messages of the mobile health (mHealth) application. A between-group design was adopted in this study, where each group received weekly feedback intervention messages related to monitoring diabetes via the mHealth application. The data were collected through monitoring participants with diabetes type II for 16 weeks. The results indicated that the weekly feedback intervention messages were not suitable for the targeted audience as participants in both groups did not read the messages. However, other results that focused on users' engagement allowed us to understand the users' behaviour and their level of engagement with the mHealth application.