Dynamic Text Messaging in a Persuasive Gaming Environment to Promote Participation in Self-Tracking of Health Status

Numerous researchers have described the importance of self-tracking one’s daily life in the pursuit of a goal. However, many people are unable to maintain such a regimen. In this study, we sought to resolve this problem by making the process of self-tracking more fun and attractive. We investigate the effectiveness of three encouragement systems on influencing individuals to participate in an e-Diary system used to record health status. The three systems were: “self-tracking promoting message (SPM) only,” “self-tracking promoting message (SPM) + individual game,” and “game promoting message (GPM) + social game.” Our results revealed 328% improvement in participation performance (compared with baseline) associated with messages aimed at promoting participation in the social game. Qualitative analysis of the interviews helped to explain these results. We proposed the integration approach of dynamic text messages and social gaming to modify behavior. We believe that assigning one individual to send game promoting messages every day was key to the persuasive power of the social game, and then this persuasive power will contribute to target behavior.