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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1498351
This article is part of the Research Topic Online Assessment in Health and Sport Psychology View all 14 articles
Behavior Change Wheel as a Tool to Promote Physical Activity in Online Intervention: A Case Study
Provisionally accepted
Nuno Couto 1,2*
Vitor Morgado 1
Tomás Pereira 1
Anabela Vitorino 1,2
Teresa Bento 1,2 Susana Alves 1,3
Pedro Alexandre Duarte-Mendes 3,4
Luis Cid 1,2- 1 Sport Sciences School of Rio Maior, Santarém Polytechnic University, Rio Maior, Portugal
- 2 Research Centre in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development (CIDESD), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal
- 3 Sport Physical Activity and Health Research and Innovation Center, College of Education of Coimbra, Rio Maior, Santarém, Portugal
- 4 Department of Sports and Well-being, Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco, Portugal, Castelo Branco, Portugal
Introduction: Physical activity (PA) has significant health benefits. However, one in four adults does not meet the globally recommended levels of PA. Considering that PA behavior is influenced by various factors operating at multiple levels, including personal, social, and environmental factors, a single-subject behavioral change intervention was developed to promote PA behavior through online sessions. Method: Based on a one-to-one interventionmethodology, the Behavior Change Wheel (BCW) methodologymodel was used to design an intervention that was developed for 24 weeks, including eight weeks of online sessions and 16 weeks of follow-up. Results: We observed an increase of metabolic equivalent (MET-min/week) (baseline = 2970; eight weeks = 6440; 24 weeks = 6744) and daily steps (baseline = 8372; eight weeks = 10234; 24 weeks = 12142), which provides some evidence for the efficacy of online methodologies, especially in the relation one-to-one.The intervention, designed through BCW, had a positive effect in promoting more PA behavior in a subject of our case studyadults and provided evidence that can be used in further interventions that aim to increase PA levels in the population; however, future studies must be conducted to expand the evidence in other domains.
Keywords: physical activity, behavior change, intervention, behavior change wheel (BCW), behavior change techniques (BCTs)
Received: 18 Sep 2024; Accepted: 18 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Couto, Morgado, Pereira, Vitorino, Bento, Alves, Duarte-Mendes and Cid. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Nuno Couto, Sport Sciences School of Rio Maior, Santarém Polytechnic University, Rio Maior, Portugal
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