Promotion of healthy lifestyles to teenagers with mobile devices: a case study in Portugal
Journal
Healthcare
Date Issued
2020-09-02
Author(s)
Vanessa Villasana, María
Miguel Pires, Ivan
Sá, Juliana
M Garcia, Nuno
Canavarro Teixeira, Maria
Chorbev, Ivan
Abstract
Educating teenagers about nutrition and promoting active lifestyles is essential in reducing
the long-term health risks and one idea to achieve this is by using mobile applications. Previous
studies showed that the existing mobile applications have similar functionalities, such as intervention
with questionnaires, and the use of gamification techniques to improve interactiveness. However,
unlike our study, some studies are not validated and verified by healthcare professionals. Additionally,
this study intends to promote the interaction between the teenagers and the medical communities.
In this study, we analyze the benefits of the proposed mobile application, which features monitoring
of physical activity, daily tips and curiosities, questionnaires, and gamification through earning
points. Most of the teenagers were satisfied with the physical activity monitoring and found the tips,
curiosities, and weekly questionnaires useful. The study started with 26 teenagers from two schools
in the center of Portugal that would use the mobile application for five weeks. Still, at the end of
the study, only 7 teenagers finalized the study. The decreasing number of teenagers in the study
was affected by the lack of social interaction caused by the pandemic situation. During the period,
the mobile application would engage the users with notifications on nutrition and physical activity,
challenges concerning the number of steps and calories they would have to spend, and questionnaires
related to the curiosities and suggestions from the previous week. We used Fisher’s test to investigate
the relationship between the assessment obtained in the responses to the questionnaires, and the
adoption of healthier eating and sports practices. In summary, participants were satisfied with the
mobile application and experienced some improvements in diet and habits.
the long-term health risks and one idea to achieve this is by using mobile applications. Previous
studies showed that the existing mobile applications have similar functionalities, such as intervention
with questionnaires, and the use of gamification techniques to improve interactiveness. However,
unlike our study, some studies are not validated and verified by healthcare professionals. Additionally,
this study intends to promote the interaction between the teenagers and the medical communities.
In this study, we analyze the benefits of the proposed mobile application, which features monitoring
of physical activity, daily tips and curiosities, questionnaires, and gamification through earning
points. Most of the teenagers were satisfied with the physical activity monitoring and found the tips,
curiosities, and weekly questionnaires useful. The study started with 26 teenagers from two schools
in the center of Portugal that would use the mobile application for five weeks. Still, at the end of
the study, only 7 teenagers finalized the study. The decreasing number of teenagers in the study
was affected by the lack of social interaction caused by the pandemic situation. During the period,
the mobile application would engage the users with notifications on nutrition and physical activity,
challenges concerning the number of steps and calories they would have to spend, and questionnaires
related to the curiosities and suggestions from the previous week. We used Fisher’s test to investigate
the relationship between the assessment obtained in the responses to the questionnaires, and the
adoption of healthier eating and sports practices. In summary, participants were satisfied with the
mobile application and experienced some improvements in diet and habits.
Subjects
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