PEGASO: a personalised and motivational ICT system to empower adolescents towards healthy lifestyles

Unhealthy alimentary behaviours and physical inactivity habits are key risk factors for major non communicable diseases. Several researches demonstrate that juvenile obesity can lead to serious medical conditions, pathologies and have important psycho-social consequences. PEGASO is a multidisciplinary project aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles among teenagers through assistive technology. The core of this project is represented by the ICT system, which allows providing tailored interventions to the users through their smartphones in order to motivate them. The novelty of this approach consists of developing a Virtual Individual Model (VIM) for user characterization, which is based on physical, functional and behavioural parameters opportunely selected by experts. These parameters are digitised and updated thanks to the user monitoring through smartphone; data mining algorithms are applied for the detection of activity and nutrition habits and this information is used to provide personalised feedback. The user interface will be developed using gamified approaches and integrating serious games to effectively promote health literacy and facilitate behaviour change

User Empowerment in Telehealth Practice: The Telescope Project Approach

The article explains the development of the European Code of Practice for Telehealth Services within the European Commission funded TeleSCoPE project

Within-breath input impedance by impulse oscillometry in severely asthmatic horses

Impulse oscillometry system (IOS) detects pulmonary obstruction in horses measuring average total respiratory system impedance (Zrs). In humans, analysis of within-breath changes of Zrs allows identification of the presence of expiratory flow limitation. Aims of this study were to describe the inspiratory and expiratory Zrs parameters measured by IOS in asthmatic horses and to determine whether they allow the detection of residual airway obstruction in asthmatic horses in disease remission. Seven severely asthmatic horses in disease exacerbation (HE), seven asthmatic horses in clinical remission (HR) and seven control horses (HC) from a cohort of experimental age-matched animals underwent IOS testing. Only data at 3, 5 and 7 Hz with coherence >0.85 at 3 Hz and >0.9 at 5 and 7 Hz were considered in this study. Mean, inspiratory and expiratory resistance (R) and reactance (X) and the difference between inspiratory and expiratory X (\u394X) were calculated at each frequency. The three groups were compared using Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn\u2019s multiple comparison tests. HE differed from HC for all R parameters at 3 Hz and all X parameters at all frequencies (P<0.01-0.001). HE differed from HR (P<0.05) for R3, R3e, X3e, X5e. HR differed from HC for X7i (P<0.05). \u394X was higher (P<0.05) in HE than in HC (5 Hz) or HR (all frequencies, P<0.01-0.001). Results indicate that as reported in humans during tidal expiratory flow limitation, Xrs during the expiratory phase is more negative than during inspiration in HE. Difference in X7i appears to be promising to discriminate between HC and HR

A mobile phone intervention to improve obesity-related health behaviors of adolescents across Europe: Iterative co-design and feasibility study

Background: Promotion of physical activity, healthy eating, adequate sleep, and reduced sedentary behavior in adolescents is a major priority globally given the current increase in population health challenges of noncommunicable diseases and risk factors such as obesity. Adolescents are highly engaged with mobile technology, but the challenge is to engage them with mobile health (mHealth) technology. Recent innovations in mobile technology provide opportunities to promote a healthy lifestyle in adolescents. An increasingly utilized approach to facilitate increased engagement with mHealth technology is to involve potential users in the creation of the technology. Objective: This study aimed to describe the process of and findings from co-designing and prototyping components of the PEGASO Fit for Future (F4F) mHealth intervention for adolescents from different cultural backgrounds. Methods: A total of 74 adolescents aged 13 to 16 years from Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom participated in the co-design of the PEGASO F4F technology. In 3 iterative cycles over 12 months, participants were involved in the co-design, refinement, and feasibility testing of a system consisting of diverse mobile apps with a variety of functions and facilities to encourage healthy weight-promoting behaviors. In the first iteration, participants attended a single workshop session and were presented with mock-ups or early-version prototypes of different apps for user requirements assessment and review. During the second iteration, prototypes of all apps were tested by participants for 1 week at home or school. In the third iteration, further developed prototypes were tested for 2 weeks. Participants' user experience feedback and development ideas were collected through focus groups and completion of questionnaires. Results: For the PEGASO F4F technology to be motivating and engaging, participants suggested that it should (1) allow personalization of the interface, (2) have age-appropriate and easy-to-understand language (of icons, labels, instructions, and notifications), (3) provide easily accessible tutorials on how to use the app or navigate through a game, (4) present a clear purpose and end goal, (5) have an appealing and self-explanatory reward system, (6) offer variation in gamified activities within apps and the serious game, and (7) allow to seek peer support and connect with peers for competitive activities within the technology. Conclusions: Incorporating adolescents' preferences, the PEGASO F4F technology combines the functions of a self-monitoring, entertainment, advisory, and social support tool. This was the first study demonstrating that it is possible to develop a complex mobile phone-based technological system applying the principles of co-design to mHealth technology with adolescents across 3 countries. The findings from this study informed the development of an mHealth system for healthy weight promotion to be tested in a controlled multinational pilot trial

Towards individualised persuasive technology for obesity prevention in teenagers

Obesity is a major clinical problem for individuals and health care systems worldwide, alarmingly fuelled by body mass excess in the juvenile age. In spite of its multi-factorial origin, unhealthy lifestyles relative to alimentary behaviours and physical activity habits play a major causative role. Thus, an important preventive action of this condition can be conducted by fostering motivation of young people towards healthy lifestyles through engagement and inclusion. ICT technologies offer a powerful tool to address effectively this serious medical and societal issue by the development of persuasive strategies based on an accurate modelling of individual's characteristics. PEGASO is a technological multidisciplinary project aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles among teenagers, through assistive technology enhancing motivation to healthy lifestyles, empowered by a virtual individual model (VIM) for user characterisation. The VIM intended for the PEGASO project, including functional, physical and psychosocial aspects profiling young individuals' health status and behaviours relevant in alimentary and physical activity domain, will enable the development of an individualised assistive technology expected to leverage motivation to healthy lifestyles through implicit and explicit interaction