Mobile and Context-Aware Grocery Shopping to Promote Active Aging

Active aging aims at promoting physical activity, socialization and participation in society as a mechanism to improve physical and mental health. We explore the use of a mobile, context-aware application to help elders transform their grocery shopping experience into an activity that promotes active aging. We describe the design and formative evaluation of WaSSAA, a mobile application to persuade elders to exercise and socialize while sharing grocery prices and promoting “smart” grocery shopping. WaSSAA uses location information to promote social encounters and to ask shoppers to gather price information for fellow users, and the accelerometer to estimate physical activity and reward its user. Results of a formative evaluation of the usefulness of WaSSAA with 16 elders shows that older adults are aware and sensitive to grocery prices and find the application useful to guide them when comparing prices during grocery shopping. They also perceive grocery shopping as a social activity and welcome WaSSAA’s services to encourage in-person encounters.