Table 2.

Possible categorization approach for smartphone-based interventions for physical activity promotion.

Steps in the development and evaluation process [182] and development and evaluation trajectory of mHealtha PAb interventions, study type					Common reported systematic theory or evidence-based practices and methods for development, evaluation, and reporting		Purpose
Formative research
	Summarizing findings
		Commercial smartphone app content analyses		BCTc taxonomies Scales to assess app quality PA recommendations		To critically evaluate the material that has already been published To provide an overview of the current state of knowledge
		Smartphone-based intervention review studies		Industry-recognized reporting guidelines Behavior change theories or models BCT taxonomies
		Activity tracker review studies		Industry-recognized reporting guidelines
		Activity tracker content analyses		BCT taxonomies
	Synthesizing findings
		Meta-analyses of PA intervention studies		BCT taxonomies Industry-recognized reporting guidelines		To assess the strength of evidence present through establishing statistical significance
	Qualitative formative research
		Qualitative formative studies (assessing general topic perception by target users)		Mixed methods data collection (surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups discussions)		To inform the development of the intervention
Pretesting
	Describing an intervention
		App development descriptive studies		BCT taxonomies Behavior change theories or models PA recommendations Scales to assess app quality		To describe the intervention development process and intervention features To control acceptability, engagement, and experiences of proposed intervention to target audience To improve and refine intervention on the basis of qualitative feedback
Pilot study
	Pilot testing
		Pilot trials		Behavior change theories or models PA recommendations Industry-recognized reporting guidelines Trial designs (RCTsd, experimental trials, and rapid design trials)		To examine content of intervention To examine feasibility of a trial approach, trial processes (eg, recruitment, registration, data collection), methods
	Trial protocol
		Study protocols		Behavior change theories or models PA recommendations Industry-recognized reporting guidelines Trial designs (RCTs, experimental trials, and rapid design trials)		To describe processes of trials (eg, recruitment, registration, data collection)
RCTs
	Testing
		Clinical trials		Behavior change theories or models PA recommendations Industry-recognized reporting guidelines Trial designs (RCTs, experimental trials, and rapid design trials)		To examine the effect of the intervention as a whole package or the effect of one of its components
Qualitative follow-up
	Qualitative follow-up evaluation
		Qualitative follow-up studies (assessing the developed intervention by target users)		Mixed methods data collection (surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups discussions) Behavior change theories or models		To control acceptability, engagement, and experiences of proposed intervention to target audience To control implementation issues To control the effect of the intervention after dissemination

^amHealth: mobile health.

^bPA: physical activity.

^cBCT: behavior change technique.

^dRCT: randomized controlled trial.