Discover how physical activity can influence your mood
Hello! You are invited to participate in a study from WAVES, imec - Ghent University.
Physical activity makes us happy and to study this relationship, an Android app called MoodApp was developed to collect data about your activities and mood in your daily life.
Your participation in this study not only helps us, but can also help yourself to gain more insight in your mood, stress level, energy level and physical activity and hopefully you will discover yourself what influence physical activity can have on your mood.
What does participation mean?
If you decide to participate, you can install this app on your Android smartphone here. It will first show you a questionnaire. After this, you wait until the starting date of the study (don't worry, the app will remind you with notifications) and from then on, you open the app daily for 21 days to submit information about your mood and physical activities (3). The start date of these 21 days is specified here.
At the starting date, you enter and submit your information in the app itself at least once a day: every time BEFORE AND AFTER a physical activity you performed, or at the end of the day (which only takes +/- 3 minutes per day of your time).
You don't have to change your behavior or physical activities during this time. You do as you normally do and enter any physical activity that raises your heart rate like running, cleaning your house or taking the dog for a walk.
To remind you to submit your information in MoodApp for 21 days, the app will send you a notification several times a day which will open MoodApp if you click on it. But you certainly don't have to wait for a notification to appear to submit your information. You just have to remember to open the app daily and submit your data in the app before and after every physical activity.
When you have submitted for 21 days, you go to the last questionnaire and you can finish the study. Please finish the study during the time frame and before the deadline date communicated to you on this website. The details about the study can be found below on this website (click here).
All research data submitted through MoodApp will be processed pseudonymized. We take your privacy very seriously. We worked for months together with the privacy officers at imec and Ghent University to make this app fully GDPR proof and this study received ethical approval.
Is there an incentive provided?
Yes, there is an incentive provided of 30 EUR directly transferred to your bank account after the research (4) for the first 50 registered participants who meet the following conditions:
- Information has to be submitted for 21 consecutive days in the time period asked by the researchers (see start and end date here)
- Before and after each physical activity (max. 2 days in a row no physical activities)
- Carefully filled in the questionnaires before and after the 21 days (in the app as well) Signing up is finished now (study has already started on 01/11/2021)
A submit only counts when you have opened the app itself, entered your information in the main screen of MoodApp and pressed the "SUBMIT" button. Make sure you are connected to the internet.
Do you wish to participate?
If you decide to participate, you don't have to let us know. You can simply install the app on your device here and read the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and Information and Consent Form in the app itself. We are committed to protecting your privacy so please read the documents carefully before continuing to use the app.
Because the app is designed to protect your privacy, we do not know who the personal information that you entered in the app belongs to and we cannot provide medical help (3). When you have questions, please email us because this cannot be done through the app. Communication over email will be done securely (1).
Practical details of the study
- Technical requirements app: Android smartphone with minimum Android version 7.0
- Minimum age to participate: 18 years
- Start date: 01/11/2021 & end date: 21/11/2021
- Deadline date: 01/12/2021 (after this deadline date, no data can be submitted to or removed from the research dataset)
- Submit daily data for 21 consecutive days
Signing up is finished now (study has already started on 01/11/2021)
Why those conditions for the incentive?
For our research, it is really important that you submit for 21 consective days in the time frame asked. Therefore, we really want to motivate you to submit every day and the app will remind you up to 7 times per day to do this. Because you can enter any physical activity like walking to the supermarket, days without any physical activity will be very uncommon (but if you do have a lazy day, you can select this in the app as well "at the end of the day = no activities performed today") and the conditions for the incentive state that you can only have 2 consecutive days without any physical activity.
The first 50 registered participants who meet the conditions as described above will receive 30 EUR on their bank account from imec - Ghent University (4). Several checks are built into the system to verify these. Among the participants who did submit for 21 days but just missed one or several of the conditions, an additional prize will be randomly distributed (you have until the deadline date to qualify for this prize), so please keep submitting your information in the app and don't forget to fill in the post-test questionnaire.
App download and installation
Open this website on your Android smartphone and click on the link below to download the app installation file. The download of this .APK file should start automatically and you can install it by clicking on it in your browser or in your file explorer (under Downloads or APKs). Select "Install" or select to open it with Package Installer. If needed, a more extensive description can be found in the Installation and Instruction Manual.
Signing up for the study is not possible anymore. Deadline date for finishing the study is 01/12/2021.
Need extra information or help?
Here you will find the link to a comprehensive user manual with screenshots for the installation of MoodApp on your Android smartphone and other legal documents provided for the app.
An instruction video for the app is also provided below. The app is designed to be intuitive so everything should be clear, but the detailed manual and video are always available in case you would need them.
For more questions or when encountering technical difficulties, contact me on ine.coppens@ugent.be (1).
If you are not sure whether you want to participate in this study, feel free to read the manual in the link provided or watch the instruction video to get an idea of how the app works.
Thank you for your interest in this study and please let us know if you would have any questions.
Ine Coppens ine.coppens@ugent.be imec - Ghent University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture Department of Information Technology UGent - INTEC - WAVES Technologiepark - Zwijnaarde 126 9052 Gent BELGIUM
Register to receive a summary of the research findings: ine.coppens@ugent.be (1)
(1) Consent for email communication:
In order to answer your questions if you would have any, send your compensation to you or send the results of the study to you if you would be interested, we need to process your email address in function of the follow-up and assistance of the research. Should you decide to participate, your email address is in no way linked to the research data you submitted or will submit during the study in the app. We process your personal data only for this purpose based on your consent to handle your questions and requests in the best possible way and to communicate with you. This consent for email communication may be revoked at any time by reporting this to the main researcher via mail. Please refer to the Privacy Policy for more information about the personal data processed for email communication: Privacy Policy
(2) Visiting this website:
When you visit our website (https://moodapp.ugent.be/ and all other subpages thereof), access logs of your IP address, browser information and time of visit are collected. The access logs are only accessible by the administrator of the website and are only used to verify the functionality and stability of the website. These data will only be kept for the duration of the study, will never be linked to any of your other personal data submitted in this study and will be deleted when the study is finished. We process your personal data for this purpose based on our legitimate interest to provide added security and prevent abuse for our website. Please refer to the Privacy Policy for more information about the personal data processed for the website: Privacy Policy
(3) Medical disclaimer:
This app is not designed to and does not provide medical advice, professional diagnosis, opinion, treatment or services to you or to any other individual. Through this app, imec - Ghent University collects subjective medical information for research purposes only. The submission in this app of your subjective medical information for both physical and mental health is not a substitute for medical or professional care, and you should not use the app in place of a visit, call consultation or the advice of your physician or other healthcare provider.
If you believe you have any health problem, or if you have any questions regarding your health or a medical condition, you should promptly consult your physician or other healthcare provider. Never disregard medical or professional advice, or delay seeking it, because of something you entered in this app. Never rely on information submission in this app in place of seeking professional medical advice. You should also ask your physician or other healthcare provider to assist you in interpreting any information in this app or in applying the information to your individual case. We respect your privacy and we will not take the initiative ourselves for contacting medical help.
If you think you have a medical emergency, call your doctor or the medical emergency services immediately. Do not rely on electronic communications or communication through this app for immediate, urgent medical needs. This app is not designed to facilitate medical emergencies.
Please refer to the Terms of Use if you want to use this app: Terms of Use
(4) Receiving the incentive:
When the study is finished after 21 days and the participant has answered the last questions in the post-test questionnaire, a pop-up will show where the participant's email address can be entered (1). This email address will be encrypted and sent to the researchers together with the information about the quality of that participant's study to determine whether this participant qualifies for the incentive. The researchers then decrypt the email addresses of the participants who qualify to receive the incentive in order to be able to send them further information about their compensation and redirect them to Ghent University's payment system. Ghent University might then ask for your bank account number and/or UGent student number in order to transfer the 30 EUR to your bank account. Your email address, both encrypted and decrypted, bank account number, student number or name will never be linked to the research data submitted through the app.
