Do physical activity and dietary smartphone applications incorporate evidence-based behaviour change techniques?

BACKGROUND: There has been a recent proliferation in the development of smartphone applications (apps) aimed at modifying various health behaviours. While interventions that incorporate behaviour change techniques (BCTs) have been associated with greater effectiveness, it is not clear to what extent smartphone apps incorporate such techniques. The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of BCTs in physical activity and dietary apps and determine how reliably the taxonomy checklist can be used to identify BCTs in smartphone apps. METHODS: The top-20 paid and top-20 free physical activity and/or dietary behaviour apps from the New Zealand Apple App Store Health however, BCTs associated with increased intervention effectiveness were in general more common in paid apps. The taxonomy checklist can be used by independent raters to reliably identify BCTs in physical activity and dietary behaviour smartphone apps.