The NESTORE e-Coach: Designing a Multi-Domain Pathway to Well-Being in Older Age

This article describes the coaching strategies of the NESTORE e-coach, a virtual coach for promoting healthier lifestyles in older age. The novelty of the NESTORE project is the definition of a multi-domain personalized pathway where the e-coach accompanies the user throughout different structured and non-structured coaching activities and recommendations. The article also presents the design process of the coaching strategies, carried out including older adults from four European countries and experts from the different health domains, and the results of the tests carried out with 60 older adults in Italy, Spain and The Netherlands

Users’ needs for a digital smoking cessation application and how to address them: a mixed-methods study

Health and self-regulatio

Participative Urban Health and Healthy Aging in the Age of AI

This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th International Conference on String Processing and Information Retrieval, ICOST 2022, held in Paris, France, in June 2022. The 15 full papers and 10 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 33 submissions. They cover topics such as design, development, deployment, and evaluation of AI for health, smart urban environments, assistive technologies, chronic disease management, and coaching and health telematics systems

The Health Status and Lifestyle Behaviours of Higher Education Students in Libya.

Aims. This research investigated the health status (e. g. weight perception and BMI, mental health conditions and general health complaints), and the lifestyle behaviours (e. g. smoking, alcohol consumption, and dietary behaviour) of Libyan higher education students (HES). The objectives were to compare their health status and lifestyle behaviours in the different regions of Libya; and to compare Libyan HES with those from other countries. In addition to this, the study aimed to determine if any association existed between demographic and academic variables and health and lifestyle variables. Purpose. The purpose of the study was to provide baseline data required by university health programmes in Libya for planning related to the health needs of students. Methods. The sample consisted of 1300 higher education students from different higher education institutes and different disciplines. The self-administered health questionnaire used included questions on health and health-related behaviours and their associated social and economic factors. It was conducted during lecture time. Data were analysed with SPSS. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify sociodemographic variables associated with health and lifestyle variables. Results. In this sample of students, the prevalence of overweight was higher than the prevalence of underweight and obesity (14.5%, 18.2%, and 4.2% respectively), and 40% of students were trying to lose weight. High rates (45%) of depressive symptoms were found, however; overall 8.8% of respondents reported being diagnosed with anxiety, and 4.3% with depression. The findings of this study also indicated that students reported high levels of subjective health complaints. The majority of students reported that their physical activity levels were insufficient; only 5% of students met the international recommended levels of physical activity. Only one in ten students was found to be consuming an adequate amount of fruit and vegetables (at least five times a day). About 6% of the students self-identified themselves as current smokers, and the results revealed that smoking was a male phenomenon in Libya. Alcohol consumption is not very common among Libyan students, and only 3.5% reported drinking alcohol; overall, 1.6% reported using drugs, and all students who reported using drugs reported cannabis use. A gender difference was noticeable and consistent across types of complaints; depressive symptoms, dietary behaviour, physical activity, smoking and alcohol and drug consumption. Females reported significantly worse health status than males in terms of health complaints, and depressive symptoms. Males reported higher levels of physical activity and higher levels of smoking and alcohol and drug consumption than females. Students in North Libya showed the highest levels of physical activity, and also the highest levels of smoking, alcohol and drug consumption, whereas students in East Libya had the highest levels of fruit and vegetable consumption. Logistic regression analysis revealed substantial associations between females and depressive symptoms, dietary behaviour and higher levels of complaints, and also between social support and anxiety and depression. The comparisons with other survey data showed that the Libyan rates of overweight and obesity were similar to rates reported amongst students at Alexandria University in Egypt, and much higher than those reported in other countries such as Poland, Japan and Korea. Depressive symptom rates were similar to the rates reported among university students in Bulgaria and higher than those reported in Germany, Denmark and Poland with respect to male students, and Libyan HES reported lower rates of health complaints than students in certain other European countries. In addition, the levels of fruit and vegetable consumption amongst Libyan HES were lower than those reported amongst Australian students. The prevalence of physical activity levels was lower than that reported amongst university students in the United Arab Emirates. The results of this study clearly indicate that the prevalence of smoking and alcohol and drug consumption among students in Libya was " lower than among those from other Arabic countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Conclusion. Efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle among students are needed and should place greater emphasis on physical activity and increased fruit and vegetable consumption, and on discouraging smoking and body dissatisfaction. There is a need for future research on student health, which should be carried out with a larger sample group to develop a national standardized instrument. Future research will be helpful for accurately identifying perceived barriers to, and recommending changes to enhance, physical activity among HES

Feature Papers "Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: State of the Art and Future Perspectives"

The "Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: States of the Art and Future Perspectives" publication presents contemporary, innovative, and insightful narratives, debates, and frameworks based on an international collection of papers from scholars spanning the fields of gerontology, social sciences, architecture, computer science, and gerontechnology. This extensive collection of papers aims to move the narrative and debates forward in this interdisciplinary field of age-friendly cities and communities

Data Science and Knowledge Discovery

Data Science (DS) is gaining significant importance in the decision process due to a mix of various areas, including Computer Science, Machine Learning, Math and Statistics, domain/business knowledge, software development, and traditional research. In the business field, DS's application allows using scientific methods, processes, algorithms, and systems to extract knowledge and insights from structured and unstructured data to support the decision process. After collecting the data, it is crucial to discover the knowledge. In this step, Knowledge Discovery (KD) tasks are used to create knowledge from structured and unstructured sources (e.g., text, data, and images). The output needs to be in a readable and interpretable format. It must represent knowledge in a manner that facilitates inferencing. KD is applied in several areas, such as education, health, accounting, energy, and public administration. This book includes fourteen excellent articles which discuss this trending topic and present innovative solutions to show the importance of Data Science and Knowledge Discovery to researchers, managers, industry, society, and other communities. The chapters address several topics like Data mining, Deep Learning, Data Visualization and Analytics, Semantic data, Geospatial and Spatio-Temporal Data, Data Augmentation and Text Mining

The Health Status and Lifestyle Behaviours of Higher Education Students in Libya.

Aims. This research investigated the health status (e. g. weight perception and BMI, mental\ud health conditions and general health complaints), and the lifestyle behaviours (e. g. smoking,\ud alcohol consumption, and dietary behaviour) of Libyan higher education students (HES). The\ud objectives were to compare their health status and lifestyle behaviours in the different regions\ud of Libya; and to compare Libyan HES with those from other countries. In addition to this, the\ud study aimed to determine if any association existed between demographic and academic\ud variables and health and lifestyle variables. Purpose. The purpose of the study was to provide\ud baseline data required by university health programmes in Libya for planning related to the\ud health needs of students. Methods. The sample consisted of 1300 higher education students\ud from different higher education institutes and different disciplines. The self-administered\ud health questionnaire used included questions on health and health-related behaviours and\ud their associated social and economic factors. It was conducted during lecture time. Data were\ud analysed with SPSS. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify sociodemographic\ud variables associated with health and lifestyle variables. Results. In this sample\ud of students, the prevalence of overweight was higher than the prevalence of underweight and\ud obesity (14.5%, 18.2%, and 4.2% respectively), and 40% of students were trying to lose\ud weight. High rates (45%) of depressive symptoms were found, however; overall 8.8% of\ud respondents reported being diagnosed with anxiety, and 4.3% with depression. The findings\ud of this study also indicated that students reported high levels of subjective health complaints.\ud The majority of students reported that their physical activity levels were insufficient; only 5%\ud of students met the international recommended levels of physical activity. Only one in ten\ud students was found to be consuming an adequate amount of fruit and vegetables (at least five\ud times a day). About 6% of the students self-identified themselves as current smokers, and the\ud results revealed that smoking was a male phenomenon in Libya. Alcohol consumption is not\ud very common among Libyan students, and only 3.5% reported drinking alcohol; overall,\ud 1.6% reported using drugs, and all students who reported using drugs reported cannabis use.\ud A gender difference was noticeable and consistent across types of complaints; depressive\ud symptoms, dietary behaviour, physical activity, smoking and alcohol and drug consumption.\ud Females reported significantly worse health status than males in terms of health complaints,\ud and depressive symptoms. Males reported higher levels of physical activity and higher levels\ud of smoking and alcohol and drug consumption than females. Students in North Libya showed\ud the highest levels of physical activity, and also the highest levels of smoking, alcohol and\ud drug consumption, whereas students in East Libya had the highest levels of fruit and\ud vegetable consumption. Logistic regression analysis revealed substantial associations\ud between females and depressive symptoms, dietary behaviour and higher levels of\ud complaints, and also between social support and anxiety and depression. The comparisons\ud with other survey data showed that the Libyan rates of overweight and obesity were similar to\ud rates reported amongst students at Alexandria University in Egypt, and much higher than\ud those reported in other countries such as Poland, Japan and Korea. Depressive symptom rates\ud were similar to the rates reported among university students in Bulgaria and higher than those\ud reported in Germany, Denmark and Poland with respect to male students, and Libyan HES\ud reported lower rates of health complaints than students in certain other European countries. In\ud addition, the levels of fruit and vegetable consumption amongst Libyan HES were lower than\ud those reported amongst Australian students. The prevalence of physical activity levels was\ud lower than that reported amongst university students in the United Arab Emirates. The results\ud of this study clearly indicate that the prevalence of smoking and alcohol and drug\ud consumption among students in Libya was " lower than among those from other Arabic countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Conclusion. Efforts to\ud promote a healthy lifestyle among students are needed and should place greater emphasis on\ud physical activity and increased fruit and vegetable consumption, and on discouraging\ud smoking and body dissatisfaction. There is a need for future research on student health, which\ud should be carried out with a larger sample group to develop a national standardized\ud instrument. Future research will be helpful for accurately identifying perceived barriers to,\ud and recommending changes to enhance, physical activity among HES