Evaluation of the "ActiveWaiting App" Encouraging Active Exercise-related Use of Waiting Time

Evaluation of the "ActiveWaiting App" Encouraging Active Exercise-related Use of Waiting Time. A Waitlist Control Study

The goal of this study (waitlist control study) is to evaluate the effectiveness of the ActiveWaiting App on increasing physical activity and improving quality of life in physically inactive adults in Austria.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Does the provision of the ActiveWaiting App lead to increased physical activity behaviour, compared to a no-intervention control group?
2. Does the provision of the ActiveWaiting App lead to increased health-related quality of life, compared to a no-intervention control group? Participants will use the ActiveWaiting App over a period of seven days. During this period, they will answer daily questionnaires (3 - 6 questions) in order to gather their actual physical activity behaviour. Before and after the intervention period additional questionnaires on health-related quality of life will be sent to the participants.

Participants in the waitlist control group will have a control period (seven days) before using the app.

Researchers will compare the intervention group with the waitlist control group to see if the ActiveWating App has an effect

• on physical activity behaviour and
• on quality of life.

A randomized waitlist control design will be chosen to answer the research question. Participants will be randomly assigned to the intervention group or to the waitlist control group. Block randomization with permutated block sizes will ensure that both study arms are recruited evenly over time. Allocation to the groups will be concealed. The waitlist control group will have the opportunity to use the ActiveWaiting App after the control period. Intervention and control period will be 1 week. Demographic data will be collected before randomization.

Additionally to the primary research questions, the following research questions will be addressed for explorative purposes:

• How much is the ActiveWaiting App used for active waiting and breaking time?
• Which category of exercises are used for this purpose?

Inclusion Criteria:

• a sedentary lifestyle (expressed in a full to part-time sedentary job)
• using a smart phone seven days a week
• ability to operate an app on the smart phone
• age between 18 and 65 years

Exclusion Criteria:

• prior usage of the ActiveWaiting App
• achieving the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for physical activity (assessed via Rapid Assessment of physical Activity RAPA)