Persuasive technology is designed with the intent to change a particular aspect of human behavior in a predefined way. One of the most important current targets for persuasive technology is the promotion of wellness behavior. Previous research has shown that social influences can affect collective health outcomes.
Nowadays, there is increasing interest from academics and clinicians in harnessing smartphone applications (mobile apps) as a means of delivering behavioral interventions for health. Competition as a part of persuasive technology can be applied into mobile apps and this can be integrated into experimental design in interpersonal ties for measuring which one is having more significant beneficial for changing wellness behavior, it is the strong ties or weak ties.
The experiments investigated the effects of interpersonal ties between strong ties and weak ties in changing their wellness behavior. Groups of five members were asked to use mobile apps that automatically tracking and recording their daily steps and they also given groups goal to be achieved in the end of the competition’s day. The strong ties group will compete with the weak ties group. We discuss the implications of these findings for investigating the effects of interpersonal ties in wellness behavior.

Persuasive technology is designed with the intent to change a particular aspect of human behavior in a predefined way. One of the most important current targets for persuasive technology is the promotion of wellness behavior. Previous research has shown that social influences can affect collective health outcomes.
Nowadays, there is increasing interest from academics and clinicians in harnessing smartphone applications (mobile apps) as a means of delivering behavioral interventions for health. Competition as a part of persuasive technology can be applied into mobile apps and this can be integrated into experimental design in interpersonal ties for measuring which one is having more significant beneficial for changing wellness behavior, it is the strong ties or weak ties.
The experiments investigated the effects of interpersonal ties between strong ties and weak ties in changing their wellness behavior. Groups of five members were asked to use mobile apps that automatically tracking and recording their daily steps and they also given groups goal to be achieved in the end of the competition’s day. The strong ties group will compete with the weak ties group. We discuss the implications of these findings for investigating the effects of interpersonal ties in wellness behavior.

Adams, T., Bezner, J., & Steinhardt, M. (1997). The conceptualization and measurement of perceived wellness: Integrating balance across and within dimensions. American Journal of Health Promotion, 11(3), 208-218.
Ambler, S. W. (2004). The object primer: Agile model-driven development with UML 2.0: Cambridge University Press.
Andrews, H. (2015). SAM Fitness: An Android Wellness Application. WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE.
Anspaugh, D. J., Hamrick, M. H., & Rosato, F. D. (2006). Wellness: Concepts and applications: McGraw-Hill Companies.
Barstow, D. G. (1997). Wellness Practitioner: Concepts, Research, and Strategies. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 35(5), 52-52.
Beets, M. W., Agiovlasitis, S., Fahs, C. A., Ranadive, S. M., & Fernhall, B. (2010). Adjusting step count recommendations for anthropometric variations in leg length. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 13(5), 509-512.
Bell, K. M., Bleau, D. N., & Davey, J. T. (2011). Push notification service: Google Patents.
Berkman, L. F., & Breslow, L. (1983). Health and ways of living: the Alameda County study.
Brooke, J. (1996). SUS-A quick and dirty usability scale. Usability evaluation in industry, 189(194), 4-7.
Burt, R. S. (2004). Structural holes and good ideas1. American journal of sociology, 110(2), 349-399.
Burt, R. S. (2009). Structural holes: The social structure of competition: Harvard university press.
Carolan, B., & Natriello, G. (2005). Strong ties, weak ties: Relational dimensions of learning settings. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal.
Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2007). The spread of obesity in a large social network over 32 years. New England journal of medicine, 357(4), 370-379.
Cohen, L. (2008). Reducing Health Care Costs Through Prevention: Working Document: Prevention Institute.
Corbin, C. B., & Pangrazi, R. P. (2001). Toward a Uniform Definition of Wellness: A Commentary. President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Research Digest.
Crose, R., Nicholas, D. R., Gobble, D. C., & Frank, B. (1992). Gender and wellness: A multidimensional systems model for counseling. Journal of Counseling and Development, 71, 149-149.
Donner, J. (2008). Research approaches to mobile use in the developing world: A review of the literature. The information society, 24(3), 140-159.
Dunn, H. L. (1959). High-level wellness for man and society. American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health, 49(6), 786-792.
Durlak, J. (2000). Health promotion as a strategy in primary prevention. The promotion of wellness in children and adolescents, 221-241.
Edlin, G., & Golanty, E. (2012). Health and wellness: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Fanning, J., Mullen, S. P., & McAuley, E. (2012). Increasing physical activity with mobile devices: a meta-analysis. Journal of medical Internet research, 14(6), e161.
Fisher, S. R. A., Fisher, R. A., Genetiker, S., Fisher, R. A., Genetician, S., Fisher, R. A., & Généticien, S. (1960). The design of experiments (Vol. 12): Oliver and Boyd Edinburgh.
Fogg, B. J. (1998). Persuasive computers: perspectives and research directions. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems.
Fogg, B. J. (2002). Persuasive technology: using computers to change what we think and do. Ubiquity, 2002(December), 5.
Fogg, B. J. (2009). A behavior model for persuasive design. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 4th international Conference on Persuasive Technology.
Foster, L. T., & Keller, P. (2007). Defining wellness and its determinants. The British Columbia Atlas of Wellness (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2009) http://www. geog. uvic. ca/wellness/wellness/2_DefiningWellness. pdf (accessed 7 May 2011).
Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. H. (1993). How to design and evaluate research in education (Vol. 7): McGraw-Hill New York.
Granovetter, M. (1995). Getting a job: A study of contacts and careers: University of Chicago Press.
Granovetter, M. (2005). The impact of social structure on economic outcomes. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(1), 33-50.
Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American journal of sociology, 1360-1380.
Hales, D. (2006). An invitation to health: Cengage Learning.
Hallal, P. C., Azevedo, M. R., Reichert, F. F., Siqueira, F. V., Araújo, C. L., & Victora, C. G. (2005). Who, when, and how much?: Epidemiology of walking in a middle-income country. American journal of preventive medicine, 28(2), 156-161.
Hansen, M. T. (1999). The search-transfer problem: The role of weak ties in sharing knowledge across organization subunits. Administrative science quarterly, 44(1), 82-111.
Hartson, R., & Pyla, P. S. (2012). The UX Book: Process and guidelines for ensuring a quality user experience: Elsevier.
Haskell, W. L., Lee, I.-M., Pate, R. R., Powell, K. E., Blair, S. N., Franklin, B. A., . . . Bauman, A. (2007). Physical activity and public health: updated recommendation for adults from the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association. Circulation, 116(9), 1081.
Hatano, Y. (1993). Use of the pedometer for promoting daily walking exercise. International Council for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 29(4), 4-8.
Hatano, Y., & Tudor-Locke, C. (2001). Pedometer-assessed physical activity: measurement and motivations. Paper presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD.
Hettler, B. (1980). Wellness promotion on a university campus. Family & community health, 3(1), 77-95.
Johnson, C. (2011). Health and Wellness. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 34(6), 407. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmpt.2011.06.004
Jonas, S. (2005). The wellness process for healthy living: A mental tool for facilitating progress through the stages of change. AMAA Journal, 18(2), 5-8.
Karwowski, W., Soares, M. M., & Stanton, N. A. (2011). Human Factors and Ergonomics in Consumer Product Design: Uses and Applications: CRC Press.
Kelly, J. G. (2000). Wellness as an ecological enterprise. The promotion of wellness in children and adolescents, 101-131.
Kirwan, M., Duncan, M. J., Vandelanotte, C., & Mummery, W. K. (2012). Using smartphone technology to monitor physical activity in the 10,000 Steps program: a matched case–control trial. Journal of medical Internet research, 14(2), e55.
Kolko, B. E., Rose, E. J., & Johnson, E. J. (2007). Communication as information-seeking: the case for mobile social software for developing regions. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 16th international conference on World Wide Web.
Krackhardt, D., & Stern, R. N. (1988). Informal networks and organizational crises: An experimental simulation. Social psychology quarterly, 123-140.
Krogerus-Therman, I. (1989). [Changing health behavior]. Hoitotiede, 2(1), 105-112.
Lafferty, J. (1979). A credo for wellness. Health Education, 10(5), 10-11.
Larson, J. S. (1999). The conceptualization of health. Medical Care Research and Review, 56(2), 123-136.
Lorion, R. P. (2000). Theoretical and evaluation issues in the promotion of wellness and the protection of" well enough".
Marshall, S. J., Levy, S. S., Tudor-Locke, C. E., Kolkhorst, F. W., Wooten, K. M., Ji, M., . . . Ainsworth, B. E. (2009). Translating physical activity recommendations into a pedometer-based step goal: 3000 steps in 30 minutes. American journal of preventive medicine, 36(5), 410-415.
Mâsse, L. C., Ainsworth, B. E., Tortolero, S., Levin, S., Fulton, J. E., Henderson, K. A., & Mayo, K. (1998). Measuring physical activity in midlife, older, and minority women: issues from an expert panel. Journal of Women's Health, 7(1), 57-67.
McQuaid, H. L., Goel, A., & McManus, M. (2003). When you can't talk to customers: using storyboards and narratives to elicit empathy for users. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 2003 international conference on Designing pleasurable products and interfaces.
Michael, M., & CHEUVRONT, C. C. J. B. (1998). Health communication on the Internet: an effective channel for health behavior change? Journal of health communication, 3(1), 71-79.
Myers, J. E., Sweeney, T. J., & Witmer, J. M. (2000). The wheel of wellness counseling for wellness: A holistic model for treatment planning. Journal of Counseling and Development: JCD, 78(3), 251.
Newman, P. (1998). The new Palgrave dictionary of economics and the law: Springer.
Organization, W. H. (1946). Preamble to the constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference. Official records of the World Health Organization. New York: WHO, 100.
Porter, M., Sala-i-Martin, X., & Schwab, K. (2007). World Economic Forum: the global competitiveness report: Palgrave, Basingstoke.
Renger, R. F., Midyett, S. J., Mas, S., Francisco, G., Erin, T. D., McDermott, H. M., . . . Johnson, K. A. (2000). Optimal Living Profile: An inventory to assess health and wellness. American journal of health behavior, 24(6), 403-412.
Resnick, M. D., Bearman, P. S., Blum, R. W., Bauman, K. E., Harris, K. M., Jones, J., . . . Shew, M. (1997). Protecting adolescents from harm: findings from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. JAMA, 278(10), 823-832.
Rodgers, A., Ezzati, M., Vander Hoorn, S., Lopez, A. D., Lin, R.-B., & Murray, C. J. (2004). Distribution of major health risks: findings from the Global Burden of Disease study. PLoS Med, 1(1), e27.
Rowe, D., Welk, G., Heil, D., Mahar, M., Kemble, C., Calabro, M., & Camenisch, K. (2011). Stride rate recommendations for moderate-intensity walking. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 43(2), 312-318.
Sackney, L., Noonan, B., & Miller, C. (2000). Leadership for educator wellness: An exploratory study. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 3(1), 41-56.
Sarason, I. G. (2013). Social support: Theory, research and applications (Vol. 24): Springer Science & Business Media.
Sarason, S. B. (2000). Porgy and Bess and the concept of wellness. Promotion of wellness in children and adolescents, 427-437.
Schaefer, C., Coyne, J. C., & Lazarus, R. S. (1981). The health-related functions of social support. Journal of behavioral medicine, 4(4), 381-406.
Seeman, T. E. (1996). Social ties and health: The benefits of social integration. Annals of epidemiology, 6(5), 442-451.
Taylor, S. E., Repetti, R. L., & Seeman, T. (1997). What is an unhealthy environment and how does it get under the skin. Annual Review of Psychology, 48(4), 11-47.
Tudor-Locke, C., Craig, C. L., Aoyagi, Y., Bell, R. C., Croteau, K. A., De Bourdeaudhuij, I., . . . Lutes, L. D. (2011). How many steps/day are enough? For older adults and special populations. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act, 8(1), 80.
Tudor-Locke, C. E., & Myers, A. M. (2001). Methodological considerations for researchers and practitioners using pedometers to measure physical (ambulatory) activity. Research quarterly for exercise and sport, 72(1), 1-12.
Umberson, D., Crosnoe, R., & Reczek, C. (2010). Social relationships and health behavior across life course. Annual review of sociology, 36, 139.
White, K. L. (1985). Behavioral Health: A Handbook of Health Enhancement and Disease Prevention. JAMA, 254(23), 3375-3376.
Wilde, B. E., Sidman, C. L., & Corbin, C. B. (2001). A 10,000-step count as a physical activity target for sedentary women. Research quarterly for exercise and sport, 72(4), 411-414.