Combating Sedentary Behavior: An App Based on a Distributed Prospective Memory Approach

Sedentary behavior such as sitting is associated with severe health issues. We suggest that the sedentary behavior problem can be considered as a prospective memory task: remember to get enough activity within 30-minute periods. We describe the functions, development, and pilot evaluation of a theoretically motivated smartphone app to combat the sedentary behavior based on human movement research and distributed prospective memory. Finally, we outline the methods of a larger evaluation of the app and discuss limitations and future extensions of the distributed prospective memory approach.