Table 1.
Behavior change techniques incorporated in different wrist-worn wearables.
| BCTsa | Proven effectiveness to promote physical activity | Apple Watch Series 3 | Fitbit Versa | Garmin Vívoactive 3 | Polar M600 | Xiaomi Amazfit Stratos 2 | Incorporations, N |
| Goal setting (behavior) (item 1.1) |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Barrier identification/problem solving (item 1.2) | ✓ |
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
| Action planning (item 1.4) |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Review behavior goal(s) (item 1.5) |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Discrepancy between current behavior and goal (item 1.6) |
|
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Commitment (item 1.9) | ✓ |
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
| Feedback on behavior (item 2.2) |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Self-monitoring of behavior (item 2.3) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Biofeedback (item 2.6) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Social support (unspecified) (item 3.1) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Social support (emotional) (item 3.3) |
|
|
✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
|
3 |
| Instruction on how to perform the behavior (item 4.1) |
✓ |
|
✓b | ✓ |
|
|
1 (2) |
| Information about health consequences (item 5.1) |
✓ |
|
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 4 |
| Information about social and environmental consequences (item 5.3) |
✓ |
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
| Monitoring of emotional consequences (item 5.4) |
|
|
|
|
✓ |
|
1 |
| Information about emotional consequences (item 5.6) |
✓ |
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
| Demonstration of the behavior (item 6.1) | ✓ |
|
✓b | ✓ |
|
|
1 (2) |
| Social comparison (item 6.2) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Prompts/cues (item 7.1) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Behavioral practice/rehearsal (item 8.1) |
✓ |
|
✓b | ✓ |
|
|
1 (2) |
| Graded tasks (item 8.7) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
|
|
2 |
| Credible source (item 9.1) |
|
|
✓ | ✓ |
|
✓ | 3 |
| Nonspecific reward (item 10.3) |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
|
4 |
| Social reward (item 10.4) |
|
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Nonspecific incentive (item 10.6) |
|
✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
|
|
3 |
| Self-reward (item 10.9) |
✓ |
|
|
|
|
|
—c |
| Adding objects to the environment (item 12.5) |
|
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 |
| Reward approximation (item 14.4) |
✓ |
|
✓ |
|
|
|
1 |
| Situation-specific reward (item 14.6) |
|
✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
|
|
3 |
| Verbal persuasion about capability (item 15.1) |
|
✓ |
|
✓ |
|
|
2 |
| Focus on past success (item 15.3) |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
|
✓ | 4 |
| Self-talk (item 15.4) | ✓ |
|
|
|
|
|
— |
| BCT clusters, n |
|
10 | 13 | 13 | 8 | 10 | — |
| Incorporated BCTs, n |
|
18 | 24 | 24 | 16 | 15 | — |
| Incorporated BCTs with proven effectiveness [17-23], n |
|
12 | 17 | 16 | 11 | 11 | — |
aBCT: behavior change technique.
bAvailable as a paid add-on feature.
cNot applicable.