Wearable Computing for Health and Fitness: Exploring the Relationship between Data and Human Behaviour

Health and fitness wearable technology has recently advanced, making it easier for an individual to monitor their behaviours. Previously self generated data interacts with the user to motivate positive behaviour change, but issues arise when relating this to long term mention of wearable devices. Previous studies within this area are discussed. We also consider a new approach where data is used to support instead of motivate, through monitoring and logging to encourage reflection. Based on issues highlighted, we then make recommendations on the direction in which future work could be most beneficial

Theory-driven Visual Design to Support Reflective Dietary Practice via mHealth: A Design Science Approach

Design for reflection in human-computer interaction (HCI) has evolved from focusing on an abstract and outcome-driven design subject towards exposing procedural or structural reflection characteristics. Although HCI research has recognized that an individual\u27s reflection is a long-lasting, multi-layered process that can be supported by meaningful design, researchers have made few efforts to derive insights from a theoretical perspective about appropriate translation into end-user visual means. Therefore, we synthesize theoretical knowledge from reflective practice and learning and argue for a differentiation between time contexts of reflection that design needs to address differently. In an interdisciplinary design-science-research project in the mHealth nutrition promotion context, we developed theory-driven guidelines for “reflection-in-action” and “reflection-on-action”. Our final design guidelines emerged from prior demonstrations and a final utility evaluation with mockup artifacts in a laboratory experiment with 64 users. Our iterative design and the resulting design guidelines offer assistance for addressing reflection design by answering reflective practice’s respective contextual requirements. Based on our user study, we show that reflection in terms of “reflection- in-action” benefits from offering actionable choice criteria in an instant timeframe, while “reflection-on-action” profits from the structured classification of behavior-related criteria from a longer, still memorable timeframe

Improving personalized elderly care: an approach using cognitive agents to better assist elderly people

Tesis por compendio de publicaciones[ES]El envejecimiento de la población a nivel global es una constante cada vez más presente en el día a día y las consecuencias derivadas de este problema son cada vez más impactantes para el correcto funcionamiento y estructuración de la sociedad. En este contexto, hablamos de consecuencias a nivel de crecimiento económico, estilos de vida (y jubilación), relaciones familiares, recursos disponibles por el gobierno a la franja etaria más anciana e inevitablemente la prevalencia de enfermedades crónicas. Es ante esta realidad que surge la necesidad de desarrollo y promoción de estrategias eficaces en el acompañamiento, prevención y estímulo al envejecimiento activo y saludable de la población para garantizar que las personas ancianas continúen teniendo un papel relevante en la sociedad en lugar de someterse al aislamiento y fácil deterioro de las capacidades físicas, cognitivas, emocionales y sociales. De esta forma, tiene todo el sentido aprovechar todos los desarrollos tecnológicos verificados en los últimos años, principalmente en lo que se refiere a avances en las áreas de dispositivos móviles, inteligencia artificial y sistemas de monitoreo y crear soluciones capaces de brindar apoyo diariamente al recopilar datos e indicadores del estado de salud y, en respuesta, proporcionar diversas acciones personalizadas que motiven la adopción de mejores hábitos de salud y medios para lograr este envejecimiento activo y saludable. El desafío consiste en motivar a esta población a conciliar su día a día con el interés y la voluntad de utilizar aplicaciones y sistemas que brinden este apoyo personalizado. Algunas de las abordajes recientemente explorados en la literatura con este objetivo y que han alcanzado resultados prometedores se basan en la utilización de técnicas de gamificación e incentivo al cumplimiento de desafíos a nivel de salud (como si la persona estuviera jugando un juego) y la utilización de interacciones personalizadas con objetos (ya sean físicos como robots o virtuales como avatares) capaces de brindar feedback más personal, creando así una conexión más cercana entre ambas entidades. El trabajo aquí presentado combina estas ideas y resulta en un enfoque inteligente para la promoción del bienestar de la población anciana a través de un sistema de cuidados de salud personalizado. Este sistema incorpora diversas técnicas de gamificación para la promoción de mejores hábitos y comportamientos, y la utilización de un asistente virtual cognitivo capaz de entender las necesidades e intereses del usuario para posibilitar un feedback e interacción personalizados con el fin de ayudar y motivar al cumplimiento de los diferentes desafíos y objetivos que se identifiquen. El enfoque propuesto fue validado a través de un estudio con 12 usuarios ancianos y se lograron resultados significativos en términos de usabilidad, aceptación y efectos de salud. Específicamente, los resultados obtenidos permiten respaldar la importancia y el efecto positivo de combinar técnicas de gamificación e interacción con un asistente virtual cognitivo que traduzca el progreso del estado de salud del usuario, ya que se lograron mejoras significativas en los resultados de salud después de la intervención. Además, los resultados de usabilidad obtenidos mediante la cumplimentación de un cuestionario de usabilidad confirmaron la buena adhesión a el enfoque presentado. Estos resultados validan la hipótesis de la investigación estudiada en el desarrollo de esta disertación

P5 eHealth: An Agenda for the Health Technologies of the Future

This open access volume focuses on the development of a P5 eHealth, or better, a methodological resource for developing the health technologies of the future, based on patients’ personal characteristics and needs as the fundamental guidelines for design. It provides practical guidelines and evidence based examples on how to design, implement, use and elevate new technologies for healthcare to support the management of incurable, chronic conditions. The volume further discusses the criticalities of eHealth, why it is difficult to employ eHealth from an organizational point of view or why patients do not always accept the technology, and how eHealth interventions can be improved in the future. By dealing with the state-of-the-art in eHealth technologies, this volume is of great interest to researchers in the field of physical and mental healthcare, psychologists, stakeholders and policymakers as well as technology developers working in the healthcare sector

E-health reference framework for personalised information provision to promote sound lifestyles

In the present context of increased healthcare demand and costs, health maintenance by prevention is a major strategic objective of public health systems. Western societies increasingly suffer from lifestyle-related diseases triggered by an unbalanced diet, physical inactivity, smoking or alcohol abuse. The majority of these diseases can be eliminated through preventative action, such as promoting positive health determinants. Focus of healthcare needs to gradually move out from the acute-care hospital, to the patient; interventions should move from the acute phase of the disease, and towards prevention monitoring and screening, detection and treatment. The possibilities of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) are fully exploited to provide life related information and services, consistency and personalization and ubiquity for health in order to strengthen prevention and treatment trends as well as to provide continuity of care demands. Prevention healthcare communication needs to be conveyed from the public health authorities to the population. This communication is essential so as to engage individuals with the policy envisaged by the public healthcare authorities and provide them with the relevant information to feel empowered. In order to be effective, there is the need to analyse how to deliver these messages with the use of new technologies. In this sense, there are a few personalised healthcare communication methodologies to deliver tailored information to individuals in the field of healthcare promotion. However, these methodologies do not take into account how this information would be delivered by means of new ICT; there is the need of structured healthcare communication to be delivered by means of e-health to provide personalised information. This research intends to understand whether tailored communication is effective in enhancing the capacity of individuals to be empowered regarding their healthcare knowledge. Besides, it is envisaged to work out whether the use of e-health systems can be boosted by personalising the provision of information. As such, a novel framework to deliver a personalised healthcare communication has been conceived, designed, implemented and evaluated. This framework contemplates the use of e-health in order to support individuals and empower them to take an active control of their healthcare. The proposed framework is a modification of an existing healthcare communication methodology that was enhanced in order to adapt it to the provision of information by new ICT devices. The first steps of the methodology were modified to create a new tailored information model to be delivered through new technological devices. In order for the personalised information delivered to be more effective a new dimension was considered: the acceptance of ICT. In this sense, this research proposes, a new e-health acceptance framework that adds a deeper insight to previous existing initiatives and by considering different elements of individuals’ behaviours regarding both the healthcare dimension as well as the acceptance of technology. Further to the conception of the new model, new tools to create the personalised information were conceived, designed and implemented together with the assistance of healthcare professionals. This would entail the possibility of an intervention by means of an e-health application to follow the same protocols as a face-to-face process. Hence, tailored information to individuals could be delivered depending on a number of psychological and physical factors. These intermediate tools made possible the development of the entire healthcare communication framework, and although they are not part of the hypothesis as such, their development has proved to be essential for the whole implementation of the e-health communication framework. In subsequent stages, the communication strategy was implemented by building a personalised e-health system to delivered information in the field of healthcare promotion. This system was implemented by using the most up-to-date Internet technologies to make the most out of the user experience, both in terms of human-computer-interaction and in the way the information is presented. In this way, the process by which individuals are empowered in order to take proactive decisions concerning their healthcare is clearly enhanced. Finally the complete framework was evaluated at different stages with the various stakeholders in order to understand whether personalised e-health platforms are more efficient in empowering individuals than general information e-health systems. SINOPSIS Cerca del 80% de las enfermedades cardiovasculares, la diabetes mellitus tipo 2 y el 40% de la incidencia de cáncer se podrían evitar con una dieta sana, una actividad física regular y la supresión del uso del tabaco. Sin embargo, la responsabilidad de esta mejora en la calidad de vida recae cada vez más sobre el propio individuo, haciendo de la motivación y de la facilidad de acceso a la información, así como de la confianza en ésta, los principales pilares de la promoción de la salud. Es importante concienciar a los ciudadanos de que ser responsables de su propia salud ofrece ventajas sustanciales. Estar bien informado sobre temas relacionados con la salud y los servicios ofrecidos por las distintas instituciones supone una mayor autonomía y un mejor control de la propia vida. Las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (TIC) son consideradas una respuesta potencial a la demanda de un mejor cuidado de la salud, mejoras en resultados médicos, y el mantenimiento de una calidad de vida relativamente alta. Entre las características de las TIC, se puede citar la actualización automática de la información y la adaptación y personalización de la misma. Sin embargo, a pesar del creciente interés en la adopción y puesta en práctica de las TIC en el sector de e-health, aún hay una enorme carencia de teorías que definan cómo el uso de dichas tecnologías puede asistir al usuario para cambiar con eficacia su estilo de vida. La Informática de Salud Pública trata de comprender, entre otros aspectos, los mecanismos de comunicación de información relativa a la prevención y promoción de la salud. En este campo, numerosas teorías de comunicación buscan entender los mecanismos que llevan a los individuos a tomar una actitud frente al cambio (por ejemplo, dejar de fumar, hacerse una mamografía, etc). Sin embargo, no existe ningún marco de comunicación que contemple cómo esta información puede ser provista por medio de las TIC, con el fin de aunar los beneficios que trae consigo la prevención y promoción de la salud, y el hecho de que se usen las TIC para su difusión. En esta tesis doctoral se propone un nuevo marco de actuación que tiene como objetivo la provisión de información de prevención sanitaria personalizada por medio del uso de las nuevas TIC. En este sentido, se presenta una revisión del estado de la cuestión en la actualidad, para posteriormente realizar un nuevo modelo de provisión de información personalizada, que incluye distintas facetas hasta ahora no contempladas, tales como, el tener en cuenta los aspectos que influyen en los individuos acerca de su relación frente a la salud y al uso de la tecnología. Posteriormente, se han realizado diversas tareas como la creación de herramientas específicas que ayudan a la clasificación de los individuos con el fin de proveer información relevante. Además se han creado los distintos mensajes de información personalizada con la ayuda de profesionales en comunicación de salud, así como médicos expertos en el área, intentando recrear una intervención presencial a lo largo del tiempo, para ser provista mediante el uso de las TIC. Para demostrar las hipótesis de partida, se han implementado dos aplicaciones que tienen como fin la provisión de información personalizada a través del uso de las TIC. Estas dos aplicaciones abarcan distintos ámbitos; la primera se desarrolla en el entorno de la promoción de una dieta sana, y tiene como fin proporcionar información sobre los beneficios de comer equilibradamente. Esta información se facilita a través de tecnologías Web. La segunda, se centra en la prevención secundaria y tiene como objetivo, fomentar la actividad física a través del teléfono móvil. Finalmente, la evaluación del marco de información personalizada mediante el uso de las TIC ha revelado el interés de este tipo de plataformas; a este respecto, los individuos encuestados afirman que el hecho de que la información sea personalizada les impulsa a un mayor uso de las plataformas de e-health al ser la información presentada relevante y acorde a sus necesidades. Éstos afirman sentirse más empoderados mediante este tipo de sistemas a tomar decisiones fundamentadas con respecto a su salud

Wearables at work:preferences from an employee’s perspective

This exploratory study aims to obtain a first impression of the wishes and needs of employees on the use of wearables at work for health promotion. 76 employ-ees with a mean age of 40 years old (SD ±11.7) filled in a survey after trying out a wearable. Most employees see the potential of using wearable devices for workplace health promotion. However, according to employees, some negative aspects should be overcome before wearables can effectively contribute to health promotion. The most mentioned negative aspects were poor visualization and un-pleasantness of wearing. Specifically for the workplace, employees were con-cerned about the privacy of data collection

Tomorrow's healthy society - Research priorities for foods and diets

Health promotion and disease prevention through provision and consumption of healthy diets are increasingly recognised as crucial, both socially and economically, in the face of strained healthcare systems, an ageing population, and the high individual and economic costs of diseases.The Foresight study ‘Tomorrow's healthy society – research priorities for foods and diets’ was initiated to inform the selection of research challenges to receive funding under the Horizon 2020 programme. The exploratory scenario-building approach focused on the European consumer with the year 2050 as a long-term time horizon. Four different future scenarios were developed using the extremes of two main drivers – agricultural commodity prices (low or high) and societal values (community spirit or individualistic society). The scenarios provided the basis for the identification and prioritisation of research needs to address the challenges and opportunities arising from the different scenarios. The resulting ten research priorities fall into four thematic areas: Towards healthier eating: integrated policy-making; Food, nutrients and health: cross-interactions and emerging risks; Making individualised diets a reality; and Shaping and coping with the 2050 food system.JRC.DDG.02-Foresight and Behavioural Insight

Acceptance of ambient assisted living (AAL) technologies among older Australians : a review of barriers in user experience

One of the great challenges facing Australian society is that of an ageing population. Amongst the issues involved in this drastic demographic change, the most significant aspect is the demand for older Australians to live independently at home. The development of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies aims to address this issue. The advancement of AAL applications have been done to support the users with their daily-life activities and health concerns by providing increased mobility, security, safety in emergencies, health-monitoring, improved lifestyle, and fall-detection through the use of sensors. However, the optimum uptake of these technologies among the end-users (the elderly Australians) still remains a big concern. Thus, there is an elevated need to understand the needs and preferences of the seniors in order to improve the acceptance of AAL applications. The aim of this study is to investigate the barriers and perceptions in the use of AAL applications amongst older Australians. Focus groups and quantitative surveys have been conducted to provide a detailed analysis of these impediments. The results show that there are different factors that restrict the use of these technologies along with the fact that elderly people have certain preferences when using them. An understanding of these factors has been gained and suggestions have been made to increase the acceptance of AAL devices. This work gives useful insights towards the design of AAL solutions according to user needs