A personalized behavioral intervention implementing mHealth technologies for older adults: A pilot feasibility study.

Only 8 older adults were studied, all cognitively intact and able to complete the program, so it says nothing about more frail, cognitively impaired, or non-completing older adults. There was no control group, so changes from baseline cannot be compared with a group that did not receive the program. Sleep was the primary outcome and did not improve; the significant physical activity findings are other outcomes and should not be presented as the main result. The intervention was only 4 weeks, and the authors state this may be too short to change sleep. The program combined technology learning, education, smartwatch monitoring, phone coaching, goal setting, and financial incentives, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. Self-efficacy was not measured, so the theory-based mechanism was not tested. Participants were recruited from a geriatric clinic wellness visits and had to be sedentary with insomnia symptoms but no sleep apnea, so results may not apply to other older adults.

Do not read the reduced sitting time as proof that the mHealth program works for sleep or activity. The primary sleep outcome was null, the study had no control group, and the intervention combined technology learning, education, smartwatch monitoring, phone coaching, goal setting, and financial incentives, so no single component can be credited.