“Enjoying health benefits without losing individual autonomy” Employees’ experiences of an app-based health promotion intervention at the workplace – a grounded theory study

Sammanfattning: Background: The workplace setting is a prioritized arena for health promotion to battle non-communicable diseases. App-based interventions have shown promise to be useful tools for workplace-based health promotion. However, the effects of app-based interventions have been found to be moderate. The aim of this study is to construct a conceptual model explaining how a health promotion app, that is introduced at the workplace setting, is experienced by the employee. Method: The design used a grounded theory approach as described by Corbin and Strauss. Data from eight in-depth interviews together with memos and field notes constituted the basis for analysis. Result: The analysis resulted in the core-category Enjoying health benefits without losing individual autonomy and eight supporting categories. When employees use a health promotion app at a workplace setting in Sweden, there is a conflict between wanting to enjoy health benefits and not wanting to lose individual autonomy. The conceptual model created illustrates that the experience of the app was heterogenous and influenced by both individual and workplace-related factors. Furthermore, the model was developed to also include three ideal types of experiences: the inspired user, the non-invested user and the forced user. These capture their range and variation of the experiences, in relation to the intended and unintended functions of the intervention. Conclusion: This thesis shows that when designing and implementing an app-based approach it is important to take care not to threaten individual autonomy of the employees, as that may hinder their ability to enjoy health benefits of the intervention. By considering possible unintended functions, the feeling of threat to autonomy may be limited or avoided.