Kan mobile applikasjoner bidra til livsstilsendring? : en kvalitativ studie av treningsapplikasjonen Styrk!

Abstract

Smartphones and mobile applications has gradually become an integrated part of everyday life for many people. There are applications for most areas of life, and an increasing amount of new apps are related to health and fitness. At the same time the developed countries of the world, including Norway, struggles within activity and the health problems that comes with it. It is a fact that most non-communicable diseases are related to inactivity, and increasing the level of physical activity among the population is important for prevention of these diseases. For those already affected by a noncomunicable disease a change of behavior must take place in order to become more physical active, and thereby control the disease .Styrk! is a new app made to inspire more people to get active by doing strength training. The purpose of this research is to investigate if continued use of the app will lead to more physical activity, and finally change of behavior. The research question has been: How can an app for strength training contribute to changing of the level ofphysical activity among adults? In order to answer the research question a qualitative method has been used by semistructured interviews of six informants. The informants were adult women in need of lifestyle-change. Theorethical models related to the field of behavior change, and to continuance, have been used to discuss the research question. This research shows that the women taking part had positive experiences after using Styrk! They found it easy to use and it gives good explanations to how and why they should do strength training. They all want to continue to use the app and they have started changing behavior. The conclusion of this thesis is that an app for strength training can contribute in changing the level of physical activity among adult women. It would be useful to develop the app further so that it will fit better for people with more experience in exercise, and more experience with using apps. Keywords: fitness app, physical activity, lifestyle-change, adults, behavior change, continuance, smartphone.