The Role of Psychological Factors and the Acceptability of New Technology in Engaging Seniors in Physical Activity: A Pilot Study

This study will be a non-interventional study intended to identify psychological antecedents of the acceptability of WeWard application among people aged 55 years and older, , and its impacts on engagement in physical activity. Participants will be included in the study on a voluntary basis and healthy volunteers will be registered on the national volunteer database. This study will include people aged over 55 from senior citizens associations, from patients coming for frailty consultations at the Cimiez University Hospital Centre, and from any senior living in France. Regarding the recruitment, application users will receive a request to participate in a scientific study. If the request is accepted, participants will fill in the non-opposition form via the application and will complete, with their smartphone, a series of psychometric questionnaires (e.g. level of physical activity, personality, motivation, perceived physical competence, new technologies acceptability, etc.). Participants will then use the mobile application for a period of 12 weeks during which time, physical activity data provided from participants smartphone will be gathered such as the number of steps or gait speed. Psychometric questionnaires comprising each time one item (i.e. ecological momentary assessment) will be administered to participants randomly, in order to assess their evolution. After the 12 weeks of using the mobile application, older people will answer to the same series of psychometric questionnaires administered at the beginning of the study. Finally,lparticipants who will drop out the trial during this study will be contacted in order to clarify the reasons for their withdrawal.