A smartphone intervention to improve health in truck drivers

This intervention used a smartphone, incentives intervention to encourage local delivery and long-haul Australian truck drivers to increase physical activity and improve diet on workdays. Drivers reviewed their health status individually with researchers, using researcher-assessed baseline physical measures of waist circumference and blood pressure, and self-reported sedentary and physical activity patterns, and diet choices. At the depot, they then participated in a workshop (around 45 minutes), led by a qualified health promotion researcher, where the health benefits of good physical activity and healthy dietary choices were presented and discussed. At this workshop, the drivers were provided with an information booklet which enabled mapping of opportunities for workday changes, and required drivers to set achievable, progressive and sustainable goals. Following the workshop, drivers were asked to implement small changes relative to these goals over 20 weeks. They were given and received training on how to use a smartphone application (app) and activity tracker (Jawbone UP) to self-monitor and regulate behaviour change; for physical activity, drivers set a workday step goal (e.g. a progressive increase of 1000 daily steps each 2 week period, with the aim of achieving and maintaining a 3000 steps/day increase above typical movement patterns) and used the app and tracker to monitor and regulate their progress relative to these goals; for diet, drivers aimed to swap food and beverages high in saturated fat and processed/refined sugar with lower or reduced fat and sugar options (e.g. fried foods with fresh wraps), entering these choices manually or through a bar code scanner in the app to monitor and self-regulate recommended daily intake; as an additional motivator, reward points and vouchers were accumulated over the duration of the intervention, relative to the number of positive physical activity and dietary changes made. For the duration of the intervention, researchers stayed connected with drivers via the app. They reviewed linked data drivers entered into the app, providing feedback and guidance on changes and progress, in the form of weekly motivational messages posted on the driver's app home page.