Health behaviour
Facebook team walking RCT
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
A 50-day team social-network pedometer program boosted walking/MVPA during the intervention, but gains were not maintained 3 months later.
Study at a glance
- Design
- RCT — 50-day Facebook app + pedometer vs wait-list; teams of friends
- N
- N=110 · 51 intervention, 59 control
- Population
- Insufficiently active adults organized in Facebook friend teams
- Outcome
- Self-reported MVPA/walking at 8 and 20 weeks
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
Key findings
Intervention increased walking by ~155 min/week (P < .001) during the program; between-group advantages were not maintained 3 months after the stimulus ended; retention was 87.3%.
Methodology
Insufficiently active adults in Facebook friend teams were randomized to a 50-day app+pedometer social PA program or wait-list control; MVPA was measured at baseline, 8 weeks, and 20 weeks.
Limitations
Self-reported MVPA may inflate effects, and durability after removing the app was limited.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
A web programme can raise daily activity and short-term weight and HbA1c markers in older adults.
In older adults, a web-based activity programme increased ankle-measured daily activity (~46% vs ~12% in controls) and was associated with greater short-term weight and HbA1c improvements than control.
Scope note — different population — insufficiently active adults; durability faded after stimulus
Limits the claim's scope: a different population, assay, or outcome.
Team walking can add minutes during the programme — advantages often fade months later.
A Facebook team-walking programme increased walking by about 155 min/week during the intervention, but between-group advantages were not maintained 3 months after the stimulus ended.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Randomised activity/diet programmes, observational lifestyle indices, and digital pilots measure different endpoints (minutes walked, zBMI, incident disease, logging, abstinence). Treating them as one efficacy number manufactures agreement that the designs do not support.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Short-term behaviour change during an intervention (walking minutes, logging) is not the same claim as durable post-stimulus effects or long-horizon disease associations.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Behaviour-change RCTs in this set often show a clear advantage while the intervention is running and a weaker or gone contrast once it stops. Insufficiently active adults randomised to a 50-day Facebook walking programme increased walking by about 155 min/week during the programme, but between-group advantages were not maintained three months after the app ended; Text4Heart raised lifestyle adherence at 3 months (AOR 2.55) without a significant 6-month difference.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Trials disagree on what a 'positive' result is allowed to be. The orthopaedic telemedicine trial treats staying inside a non-inferiority margin as success, whereas the Facebook walking, Text4Heart, Kokoro-app and MoodGYM trials are powered to show the intervention beating control on a change score. A student who reads only superiority language will misread a successful non-inferiority trial as 'no difference, so it failed.'
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Repeated-measures RCTs in this set move behaviour or symptoms while the stimulus is on. A 50-day Facebook walking programme increased walking by about 155 min/week (P < .001) with 87.3% retention, but between-group advantages were gone three months after the app ended. Adjunctive Kokoro-app CBT produced about a 2.5-point PHQ-9 advantage at week 9 (SMD 0.40) among 164 randomised participants, without a significant remission difference.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Durability and missingness pull in opposite directions across trials that share the modelling family. Facebook walking's 155 min/week advantage vanished after the stimulus ended despite 87.3% retention; MoodGYM's WEMWBS advantage persisted to 12 weeks on paper while 73.5% of the intervention arm had left. A student who treats 'mixed-model p < .05' as one finding will miss both limits.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Open questions
Tensions this paper is part of
From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.
Randomised activity/diet programmes, observational lifestyle indices, and digital pilots measure different endpoints (minutes walked, zBMI, incident disease, logging, abstinence). Treating them as one efficacy number manufactures agreement that the designs do not support.
- Supports · Web program increased older adults’ measured activity in a trial
- Supports · Healthy lifestyle and multimorbidity risk
- Supports · Child-care diet/activity RCT and zBMI
- Supports · Does a step-log app keep people tracking activity?
- Supports · Smart-T smoking EMI app
Short-term behaviour change during an intervention (walking minutes, logging) is not the same claim as durable post-stimulus effects or long-horizon disease associations.
- Supports · Healthy lifestyle and multimorbidity risk
Trials disagree on what a 'positive' result is allowed to be. The orthopaedic telemedicine trial treats staying inside a non-inferiority margin as success, whereas the Facebook walking, Text4Heart, Kokoro-app and MoodGYM trials are powered to show the intervention beating control on a change score. A student who reads only superiority language will misread a successful non-inferiority trial as 'no difference, so it failed.'
- Supports · Video orthopaedics non-inferior to clinic
- Supports · Can a CBT phone app help stubborn depression?
Durability and missingness pull in opposite directions across trials that share the modelling family. Facebook walking's 155 min/week advantage vanished after the stimulus ended despite 87.3% retention; MoodGYM's WEMWBS advantage persisted to 12 weeks on paper while 73.5% of the intervention arm had left. A student who treats 'mixed-model p < .05' as one finding will miss both limits.
- Supports · MoodGYM improves population wellbeing
History
When this study was placed
Dated entries from the concept change log — when this paper was added or removed as support, challenge, or qualifier on a claim.
Placed as a scope qualifier on Health Behaviour
In older adults, a web-based activity programme increased ankle-measured daily activity (~46% vs ~12% in controls) and was associated with greater short-term weight and HbA1c improvements than control.
Placed as supporting evidence on Health Behaviour
A Facebook team-walking programme increased walking by about 155 min/week during the intervention, but between-group advantages were not maintained 3 months after the stimulus ended.
Placed as supporting evidence on Health Behaviour
Randomised activity/diet programmes, observational lifestyle indices, and digital pilots measure different endpoints (minutes walked, zBMI, incident disease, logging, abstinence). Treating them as one efficacy number manufactures agreement that the designs do not support.
Placed as supporting evidence on Health Behaviour
Short-term behaviour change during an intervention (walking minutes, logging) is not the same claim as durable post-stimulus effects or long-horizon disease associations.
Related papers in this topic
Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.