Be He@lthy - Be Mobile (A handbook on how to implement mAgeing)

Abstract

The Be He@lthy, Be Mobile initiative is a global partnership led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), representing the United Nations agencies for health and information and communications technologies (ICTs). The initiative supports the scale up of mobile health technology (mHealth) within national health systems to help combat noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and support healthy ageing. Mobile health, or mHealth, is defined as "medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants, and other wireless devices” (1). The Be Healthy, Be Mobile initiative uses basic technologies common in most mobile phones. The BHBM initiative has overseen the development and implementation of several mHealth programmes, including mTobaccoCessation (2), mDiabetes, and mCervicalCancer. The mHealth programme-specific handbooks act as aids to policy-makers and implementers of national or large-scale mHealth programs. See Annex 1 for further information on the Be He@lthy, Be Mobile initiative. mHealth for Ageing, or mAgeing is a new programme under the initiative, the central objective of which is to assist older persons (a person whose age has passed the median life expectancy at birth) in maintaining functional ability and living as independently and healthily as possible through evidence-based self-management and self-care interventions. This handbook provides guidance for national programmes and organizations responsible for the care of older persons to develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate an mAgeing programme. The text messaging communication provided uses evidence-based behaviour change techniques to help older persons prevent and manage early declines in intrinsic capacity and functional ability. The mAgeing programme is based on WHO’s Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE): Guidelines on community-level interventions to manage declines in intrinsic capacity (3) which include interventions to prevent declines in intrinsic capacity and functional abilities in older people, namely: mobility loss, malnutrition, visual impairment and hearing loss; as well as cognitive impairments and depressive symptoms. The messages are designed to encourage participation in activities, and to prevent, reduce, or even partly reverse, significant losses in capacity. The content of the mAgeing programme will complement routine care offered by health care professionals by supporting self-care and self-management. All content in this handbook is based on the WHO ICOPE Guidelines and other relevant WHO recommendations. The ICOPE Guideline recommendations were reached by the consensus of a guideline development group, convened by WHO, which based its decisions on a summary of systematic reviews of the best quality evidence most relevant to community-level care for older people, as well as the most up-to-date research on the effectiveness of mHealth