Daehyoung Lee, PhD
AIR-P Scholar, Cohort 4 (2023-2024)
About
Project:
A Self-Determination Theory-Guided mHealth Intervention to Improve Uptake and Sustainability of Physical Activity Engagement and Reduce Sedentary Behavior in Autistic Adults
Institution: University of Delaware
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Project Overview
This pilot project seeks to evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of a mobile health (mHealth) app PuzzleWalk v2 on increasing physical activity (PA) and reducing sedentary behavior (SB) in autistic adults. PuzzleWalk is an innovative mHealth app that combines gamification, incentivization, and evidence-based health behavior strategies leveraging unique strengths of autistic individuals who often prefer visuospatial learning and are drawn to gaming technologies due to their low face-to-face social requirements. PuzzleWalk v2 will build upon previous findings by refining the step-game time conversion algorithm and incorporating various autism-friendly elements, such as visual cues, feedback on performance, and positive reinforcement in collaboration with key stakeholders, including autistic adults, parents of autistic children, and other service providers.