Physical Activity and Mental Health App for Workers

ASHARE

Research Participation & Corporate Recruitment

【Participate by Department/Team】 Would you like to introduce the "ASHARE" app to your workplace?

Target Audience for This Overview

Corporate executives, HR/labor management specialists, and occupational health professionals (occupational physicians, occupational health nurses, etc.).

Target Organizational Size

Departments, units, or teams within an organization (consisting of approximately 20 members). *Participation across multiple departments or company-wide is also highly welcome.

Highly Recommended for Organizations That:

  • Feel they have reached a structural standstill regarding corporate mental health preventative initiatives.
  • Implement various workplace health programs, but find that only a small, highly health-conscious group of employees consistently participates.
  • Wish to introduce a fresh intervention strategy distinct from typical Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or mindfulness practices.
  • Aim to integrate workplace health solutions backed by rigorous scientific evidence.
  • Are highly interested in mobile health (mHealth) and artificial intelligence (AI) powered healthcare solutions.
  • Aspire to secure certification under corporate health initiatives, such as Japan's "Health & Productivity Management" benchmarks.
  • Have established workplace wellness frameworks but encounter technical difficulties regarding comprehensive effectiveness evaluation.

Research Background & Our Challenges

Promoting physical activity is an exceptionally powerful measure for preventing mental health difficulties among working populations, supported by a substantial body of scientific evidence.
However, having empirical evidence does not automatically translate to seamless real-world execution. Workplace wellness strategies in Japan frequently encounter the following systemic challenges:

  • Divergence in Prevention Awareness: Currently healthy employees tend to have lower interest in everyday health promotion.
  • Low Retention Rates: Even when wellness apps or tools are deployed, user engagement drops sharply, with many individuals abandoning usage within a month.
  • Difficulty in Enforcing Compliance: Due to differing personal preferences and lifestyles, mandatory participation is impractical, making voluntary engagement hard to foster.
  • Substantial Healthcare Coverage: Comprehensive health insurance and medical systems reduce the perceived personal necessity or urgency of proactive prevention.

To effectively overcome these challenges, our approach focuses on two pivotal strategic vectors as essential breakthroughs:

  • Leveraging advanced technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), to deliver highly personalized behavioral modification content unique to each individual worker.
  • Going beyond merely distributing digital tools to deeply analyze each organization's unique "context," jointly formulating explicit "implementation strategies" to ensure natural adoption and long-term retention.

What We Ask of Participating Organizations

  • Organizational Interviews:
    We conduct interviews with corporate leaders, HR managers, and occupational health staff to isolate facilitators and barriers affecting the deployment and operation of "ASHARE" within your organization.
  • Application Field Testing & Effectiveness Evaluation:
    Employees within the participating units will interact with "ASHARE" for a specified period, allowing our laboratory to evaluate changes in physical activity and mental health metrics before and after the trial.

Advantages and Considerations (Disadvantages) of Research Participation

Advantages Considerations (Disadvantages)
  • Zero Financial Cost: Healthcare solutions and implementation support—which typically incur substantial fees when requested from external consulting firms or commercial vendors—are provided and evaluated entirely free of charge as part of this academic study.
  • Evidence-Backed Support: Participants gain access to a wellness tool whose core clinical parameters have been structurally validated, yielding direct health promotion and behavioral change benefits for employees.
  • Operational Constraints: Because this implementation functions within an academic research framework, certain workflows require alignment with our research plan (such as app rollout timing and trial schedules) to ensure rigorous measurement.
  • Differences from Commercial Services: Unlike fully commercial, profit-driven services, there may be features still under development, and participants will be asked to complete surveys for academic evaluation. We appreciate your understanding regarding these operational limitations.

Inquiries & Applications Regarding Research Collaboration

Principal Investigator & Contact Registrar:
Kazuhiro Watanabe, Ph.D. (Senior Lecturer)
Department of Public Health, Kitasato University School of Medicine
1-15-1 Kitazato, Minami-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-0374, Japan

Email Address:
kzwatan[at]kitasato-u.ac.jp
*Please replace "[at]" with "@" when sending inquiries.