Darcy Ummels

120 | Chapter 6 Participants Both healthcare professionals and patients were recruited in the specialized mental healthcare center. Healthcare professionals were selected via convenient sampling and were eligible if they worked as psychosomatic therapists, were motivated to use an activity tracker, and were able to participate during at least 12 months (estimated time of the entire research project). The psychosomatic therapists were recruited by the manager of the specialized mental healthcare center; no instructions were given to the manager except the inclusion criteria for the psychosomatic therapists. The psychosomatic therapists participated in all four phases of the study and recruited patients through convenient sampling. The recruited patients were individuals receiving treatment from the participating psychosomatic therapists. No instructions except from the inclusion criteria were given to the psychosomatic therapists. After giving information about the research, patients had the opportunity to consider participation for at least five working days and were included if they possessed a smartphone and provided written informed consent. Included patients participated in one cycle of the act and observe phase (2) and the reflect phase (3). New patients were included if a new act and observe phase (2) iteration was started. Data collection Data were collected between May 2019 and April 2020. A multi ‐ method approach of data collection was used, consisting of audio recordings of conversations during therapy about the MISS Activity, reflection sessions with psychosomatic therapists, and semi ‐ structured individual interviews with the patients (Table 6.1). All data reflecting the use of and experiences with the MISS Activity in daily clinical practice were collected. Use is defined as how the MISS Activity is embedded in the routine of daily clinical practice (e.g., with what purpose is the activity tracker used?) and experiences are defined as how the use of the MISS Activity is experienced during daily clinical practice (e.g., do patients and therapists experience the activity tracker as meaningful?) Table 6.1 Overview of used methods and data collection per research question. Data collection Use Experiences Conversations during therapy about measuring physical activity X Reflection sessions with psychosomatic therapists X Semi ‐ structured interview with patients X