My Activity Coach - using video-coaching to assist a web-based computer-tailored physical activity intervention: a randomised controlled trial protocol.

Stephanie Alley,Ronald C Plotnikoff,Cally Jennings,Corneel Vandelanotte

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-738

Abstract

BackgroundThere is a need for effective population-based physical activity interventions. The internet provides a good platform to deliver physical activity interventions and reach large numbers of people at low cost. Personalised advice in web-based physical activity interventions has shown to improve engagement and behavioural outcomes, though it is unclear if the effectiveness of such interventions may further be improved when providing brief video-based coaching sessions with participants. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness, in terms of engagement, retention, satisfaction and physical activity changes, of a web-based and computer-tailored physical activity intervention with and without the addition of a brief video-based coaching session in comparison to a control group.Methods/DesignParticipants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups (tailoring + online video-coaching, tailoring-only and wait-list control). The tailoring + video-coaching participants will receive a computer-tailored web-based physical activity intervention (‘My Activity Coach’) with brief coaching sessions with a physical activity expert over an online video calling program (e.g. Skype). The tailoring-only participants will receive the intervention but not the counselling sessions. The primary time point’s for outcome assessment will be immediately post intervention (week 9). The secondary time points will be at 6 and 12 months post-baseline. The primary outcome, physical activity change, will be assessed via the Active Australia Questionnaire (AAQ). Secondary outcome measures include correlates of physical activity (mediators and moderators), quality of life (measured via the SF-12v2), participant satisfaction, engagement (using web-site user statistics) and study retention.DiscussionStudy findings will inform researchers and practitioners about the feasibility and effectiveness of brief online video-coaching sessions in combination with computer-tailored physical activity advice. This may increase intervention effectiveness at an acceptable cost and will inform the development of future web-based physical activity interventions.Trial registrationACTRN12614000339651Date: 31/03/2014.

Highlights

There is a need for effective population-based physical activity interventions
Health behaviour change interventions delivered via the internet have the potential to reach a large audience at low-cost, they are convenient for participants and enable the content to be delivered in a non-confrontational way [9,10,11]
Randomised controlled trials have found that web-based interventions that provide some form of personalised advice result in improved engagement and behavioural outcomes compared to interventions providing generic advice [18,19]

Summary

Introduction

There is a need for effective population-based physical activity interventions. The internet provides a good platform to deliver physical activity interventions and reach large numbers of people at low cost. Personalised advice in web-based physical activity interventions has shown to improve engagement and behavioural outcomes, though it is unclear if the effectiveness of such interventions may further be improved when providing brief video-based coaching sessions with participants. The short-term effectiveness of webbased physical activity interventions is well-established, participant retention and engagement have been identified as a challenge with many web-based interventions reporting high dropout rates or low use of the websites after a period of time [12,13]. Reviews have shown that successful web-based physical activity interventions have included personalised advice through coaching or computer-tailoring, numerous participant contacts, social support elements, and theoreticallybased behaviour change techniques [13,16,17]. Online coaching and computer-tailored advice are effective ways of providing personalised advice in web-based interventions that mimic the advice and support provided in traditional face-to-face counselling sessions, in a way that reduces geographical, time and cost limitations [18,20]

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