TY - JOUR T1 - Steps towards digital tools for personalised physical activity promotion JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - 424 LP - 425 DO - 10.1136/bjsports-2021-104169 VL - 56 IS - 8 AU - David E Conroy AU - Gary G Bennett AU - Constantino M Lagoa AU - Kathleen Y Wolin Y1 - 2022/04/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/56/8/424.abstract N2 - Digital health has grown from a collection of provocative ideas into a multibillion-dollar industry in just over a decade in part because of the promise of this technology for improving physical activity monitoring and promotion strategies. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of evidence for this technology are beginning to accumulate.1 2 In this commentary, we offer some important considerations as the field moves towards creating personalised strategies for promoting physical activity.First, apps and wearable trackers are often portrayed as tools for promoting physical activity, but, by themselves, they are not treatments. They are simply vehicles for delivering the psychologically active ingredients of behaviour change, akin to the capsule that encloses pharmacologically active agents in medication. Physicians do not prescribe medication based on the delivery vehicle alone; they consider the mechanism of dysfunction to target, active ingredients in the drug and dosing to inform treatments. It is inappropriate to conclude that digital tools promote positive changes in activity; poorly designed interventions deployed via digital modes are no more than a digital placebo—they lack a defined target or active ingredient but are delivered in a shiny new capsule.Second, between-group differences in treatment and control groups are … ER -