Dr. Haruka Kato, Junior Associate Professor at Osaka Metropolitan University, investigated the impact of incentive design on walking behavior using a local mHealth application called HealthSmart-Senboku. Developed for residents and visitors of Senboku New-Town in Japan, this mHealth app offers unique incentive features that convert users’ daily step counts into digital rewards. HealthSmart-Senboku provides two types of incentives where users can either exchange daily walking steps for shopping coupons redeemable at selected local stores or digital train tickets for travel on Nankai Railway’s Senboku Line.
Dr. Kato’s study found that users who utilized the train ticket exchange incentive increased their daily walking by an average of 626.2 [95% CI: 0.27, 1252.2] steps/day over a five-month period. Additionally, those who used shopping coupon incentives walked 715.2 [95% CI: 277.4, 1153.0] steps/day more on average than those who did not use them.
"These findings suggest that HealthSmart-Senboku’s ticket exchange incentives effectively promote active travel," said Dr. Kato. "The results highlight the potential of mHealth apps to encourage both physical activity and public transportation use toward Healthy New Towns through well-designed incentive systems."
Haruka Kato.
Active travel effects of mHealth app that exchanges daily walking steps for digital train tickets: Quasi-experimental study using HealthSmart-Senboku.
Journal of Transport & Health, 2025. doi: 10.1016/j.jth.2025.102126