Design and evaluation of online and mobile applications for stress management and healthy eating

Stress management and healthy eating are ongoing struggles for many people in the developed world. The consequences of chronic stress and unhealthy diets are borne at both individual and societal level. Currently, ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world, and depression is the leading cause of disability. Their early prevention calls for scalable and affordable means to provide support for healthy dietary choices and daily recovery from stress. Modern technology offers potential solutions for daily self-management but few health-promoting applications have reached widespread use despite promising research findings.The aims of this thesis were to assess the real-world use of health-promoting online and mobile applications, to evaluate their objective and subjective benefits, and to draw design guidelines for preventive applications. Six studies on online and mobile applications for stress management and healthy eating were conducted with diverse settings and target groups. Two of the studies assessed the use of an online and a mobile application for healthy eating and found that less than 10% of the almost 200,000 users they attracted remained active. Two studies evaluated the benefits of technology tools combined with group intervention for stress management and found improved well-being and active use of tools, although human contact was appreciated most. The last two studies analysed stress management applications and suggested new design principles for them.Based on the findings, freely available applications can reach a large number of users, but the attrition is likely to be very high and it is unclear whether the intended audience is reached. Applications can contribute to improved well-being and provide support for behavioural changes and skills learning as long as they are simple, attractive and easy to integrate into everyday life. The design of applications should support small daily actions that result in immediate benefits, emphasize self-improvement and reflection, and offer guidance while maintaining freedom of choice. The results support the feasibility and applicability of online and mobile applications for health promotion at individual level and highlight the importance of a systematic theory-driven, user-centric and business-oriented approach to intervention development. The societal impact of the applications may remain small unless real-world implementation, maintenance and dissemination are planned from the very beginning of the development process

Identifying opportunities for social robots in youth services : A case study of a youth guidance center

Youth guidance services provide information and advice for young people, but often have limited resources and time to address all needs especially related to social interaction. Guided by the principles of Integrative Social Robotics, we conducted a case study of a youth guidance center to recognize central values and needs of clients and staff, based on which to identify possible opportunities for social interactions enabled by robots. The study consisted of a context study and an interview with a staff member, and an online questionnaire for young people (n=8) who had visited the center. The youth’s needs included conversational support and alleviation of anxiety; the staff’s needs involved getting feedback and provision of conversational support. The central values suggested by the youth were compassion, encouragement, respect, honesty, and safety, with acceptance as the overarching theme. Based on the findings, we discuss possible social robotic concepts and implications on design process and institutional practices. We also propose that values can be formulated as experience goals to guide the design process.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Crowdsourcing novel childhood predictors of adult obesity

Effective and simple screening tools are needed to detect behaviors that are established early in life and have a significant influence on weight gain later in life. Crowdsourcing could be a novel and potentially useful tool to assess childhood predictors of adult obesity. This exploratory study examined whether crowdsourcing could generate well-documented predictors in obesity research and, moreover, whether new directions for future research could be uncovered. Participants were recruited through social media to a question-generation website, on which they answered questions and were able to pose new questions that they thought could predict obesity. During the two weeks of data collection, 532 participants (62% female; age = 26.5±6.7; BMI = 29.0±7.0) registered on the website and suggested a total of 56 unique questions. Nineteen of these questions correlated with body mass index (BMI) and covered several themes identified by prior research, such as parenting styles and healthy lifestyle. More importantly, participants were able to identify potential determinants that were related to a lower BMI, but have not been the subject of extensive research, such as parents packing their children\u27s lunch to school or talking to them about nutrition. The findings indicate that crowdsourcing can reproduce already existing hypotheses and also generate ideas that are less well documented. The crowdsourced predictors discovered in this study emphasize the importance of family interventions to fight obesity. The questions generated by participants also suggest new ways to express known predictors. © 2014 Bevelander et al

Factors Anticipating Adolescents' Adherence and Dropout in an Online ACT Intervention During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study examined factors anticipating adolescents’ (N=232) adherence and dropout in an online Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) intervention targeted at promoting well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, results showed that adolescents with high academic achievement and educational expectations were more likely to participate in the induction meeting and start the program. Second, adolescents in the human supported model fulfilled the adherence criterion more often than adolescents supported by the virtual coach only. Finally, while male participants were less likely to participate in the study, the participants who started the online program were likely to adhere to it regardless of gender.Peer reviewe

The effectiveness and applicability of different lifestyle interventions for enhancing wellbeing : the study design for a randomized controlled trial for persons with metabolic syndrome risk factors and psychological distress

Peer reviewe

Design and evaluation of online and mobile applications for stress management and healthy eating

Stress management and healthy eating are ongoing struggles for many people in the developed world. The consequences of chronic stress and unhealthy diets are borne at both individual and societal level. Currently, ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world, and depression is the leading cause of disability. Their early prevention calls for scalable and affordable means to provide support for healthy dietary choices and daily recovery from stress. Modern technology offers potential solutions for daily self-management but few health-promoting applications have reached widespread use despite promising research findings.The aims of this thesis were to assess the real-world use of health-promoting online and mobile applications, to evaluate their objective and subjective benefits, and to draw design guidelines for preventive applications. Six studies on online and mobile applications for stress management and healthy eating were conducted with diverse settings and target groups. Two of the studies assessed the use of an online and a mobile application for healthy eating and found that less than 10% of the almost 200,000 users they attracted remained active. Two studies evaluated the benefits of technology tools combined with group intervention for stress management and found improved well-being and active use of tools, although human contact was appreciated most. The last two studies analysed stress management applications and suggested new design principles for them.Based on the findings, freely available applications can reach a large number of users, but the attrition is likely to be very high and it is unclear whether the intended audience is reached. Applications can contribute to improved well-being and provide support for behavioural changes and skills learning as long as they are simple, attractive and easy to integrate into everyday life. The design of applications should support small daily actions that result in immediate benefits, emphasize self-improvement and reflection, and offer guidance while maintaining freedom of choice. The results support the feasibility and applicability of online and mobile applications for health promotion at individual level and highlight the importance of a systematic theory-driven, user-centric and business-oriented approach to intervention development. The societal impact of the applications may remain small unless real-world implementation, maintenance and dissemination are planned from the very beginning of the development process

Design and implementation of web-based cognitive behavioural therapy intervention methods for management of mental wellbeing

Web-based interventions are capable of providing support for those who are unable or unwilling to get help for their mental health problems through conventional channels. Cognitive behavioural therapy is especially suited for delivery via the Internet. Transformation of treatments for web platform involves several challenges, which include implementation of understandable user guidance and motivational feedback. This thesis examines the design issues of web-based interventions by studying existing interventions and guidelines from persuasive technology. Identified persuasive strategies and psychological theories are applied in the design and implementation of a portal for management of mental wellbeing. The focus of the portal is on issues caused by stress and insufficient recovery. The portal and its intervention methods are evaluated in user studies and by expert evaluations. The results indicate that the approach is promising and beneficial at least for part of the users, but the intervention structure needs to be improved and built-in motivational strategies require further work to make the portal better suitable for independent use.   Asiasanat:Web-based intervention, computer-aided cognitive behavioural therapy, persuasive technology, personal health syste