Persuasive technology for health and wellness: State-of-the-art and emerging trends

Abstract

The evolving field of persuasive and behavior change technology is increasingly targeted at influencing behavior in the area of health and wellness. This paper provides an empirical review of 16 years (85 papers) of literature on persuasive technology for health and wellness to: (1.) answer important questions regarding the effectiveness of persuasive technology for health and wellness, (2.) summarize and highlight trends in the technology design, research methods, motivational strategies, theories, and health behaviors targeted by research to date, (3.) uncover pitfalls of existing persuasive technological interventions for health and wellness, and (4.) suggest directions for future research.

Keywords: behavior change systems; behavior theories; gamification; health and wellness; health interventions; health technology; healthy behavior; motivational strategies; persuasive strategies; persuasive technology.