Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles to Teenagers with Mobile Devices: A Case Study in Portugal

The impact of smartphone app-based interventions on adolescents' dietary intake: a systematic review and evaluation of equity factor reporting in intervention studies

CONTEXT

Adolescence is a critical stage for improving nutrition. The popularity of smartphones makes them an ideal platform for administering interventions to adolescents. A systematic review has yet to assess the impact of smartphone app-based interventions exclusively on adolescents' dietary intake. Furthermore, despite the impact of equity factors on dietary intake and the claim for mobile health of increased accessibility, there is minimal research on the reporting of equity factors in the evaluation of smartphone app-based nutrition-intervention research.

OBJECTIVES

This systematic review examines the effectiveness of smartphone app-based interventions on adolescents' dietary intake and the frequency with which equity factors and statistical analyses specific to equity factors are reported in these intervention studies.

DATA SOURCES

Databases (ie, Scopus, CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, ERIC, and Cochrane Central Register for Randomized Control Trials) were searched for studies published from January 2008 to October 2022. Smartphone app-based intervention studies that were nutrition focused, evaluated at least 1 dietary intake variable, and included participants with a mean age between 10 and 19 years were included. All geographic locations were included.

DATA EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS

Study characteristics, intervention results, and reported equity factors were extracted. Because of the heterogeneity of dietary outcomes, findings were reported as a narrative synthesis.

CONCLUSION

In total, 3087 studies were retrieved, 14 of which met the inclusion criteria. Eleven studies reported a statistically significant improvement in at least 1 dietary outcome because of the intervention. Reporting of at least 1 equity factor across articles' Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections was minimal (n = 5), and statistical analyses specific to equity factors were rare, occurring in only 4 of the 14 included studies. Future interventions should include a measurement of intervention adherence and report the impact of equity factors on the effectiveness and applicability of interventions for equity-deserving groups.

Virtual Pedagogy and Care: Systematic Review on Educational Innovation with Mobile Applications for the Development of Healthy Habits in the Adolescent Population

BACKGROUND

The scientific literature was reviewed to determine the state of the art regarding innovative educational practices that employ mobile health applications with the aim of establishing healthy habits in the adolescent population, following a strategy based on spiral curriculum.

METHODS

The search was conducted in the WOS, Scopus and PubMed databases, discarding any articles that were not published in English, Spanish or French. The search was limited to studies performed in the last 6 years, that is, from 1 January 2017 to 18 March 2023.

RESULTS

From the initial sample of 132 articles selected, the final sample included 9 articles that met the eligibility criteria after a more exhaustive analysis. This systematic review identified one application (11.11%) with topics about sex and reproductive health, two applications (22.22%) that tackled mental health, six applications (66.66%) with topics about nutrition, three applications (33.33%) that contemplate physical activity, and two applications (22.22%) with aspects related to the prevention of harmful habits. The results show a positive relationship between the use of mobile health applications used as innovative didactic resources and the establishment of healthy habits in the adolescent population.

CONCLUSIONS

Digital devices have been incorporated to the lives of humans as fundamental tools for their daily living. Specifically, adolescents are especially attracted to mobile phones. If this resource is used in this population to improve health, it is possible to attain very satisfactory objectives. The results of this review indicate that these devices can be used as a didactic resource in the promotion of health by implementing healthy habits at early ages, thereby contributing to the prevention of chronic diseases in future adulthood.

Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in High School Students: A Quasi Experimental Study via Smartphone during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The objective of this study was to evaluate whether exposure to information about physical activity and its barriers can increase the level of physical activity and reduce the time exposed to sedentary behaviors in high school students involved in integrated professional and technological education during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This quasi experimental study was conducted with integrated education high school students, divided into two groups: Intervention Group (IG; n = 59) and Control Group (CG; n = 54). Physical activity and sedentary behavior were identified and measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire pre-and post-intervention for both groups. IG students received educational material thrice a week for four weeks. The focus of the material was the importance of physical activity and need to reduce the time exposed to sedentary behavior. The results revealed that IG students showed an average daily reduction of 47.14 min in time exposed to sedentary behaviors, while the CG students showed an increase of 31.37 min. Despite this, the intervention was not effective in improving physical activity levels in the IG and the mean reduction in the time exposed to sedentary behavior was not significant (p = 0.556). The intervention was ineffective in increasing the practice of physical activity and reducing the time exposed to sedentary behavior.

The positive impact of gamification in imparting nutritional knowledge and combating childhood obesity: A systematic review on the recent solutions

Objective

This paper reviews the recent gamified interventions that focus on the dietary factor to explore the effectiveness of using gaming elements in combating the prevalence of childhood obesity.

Methods

Two electronic databases were searched (PubMed and ProQuest); to identify the relevant papers published between 2018 and 2021. The keywords that use to search the entire selected databases were gamification and obesity. There were no restrictions regarding the language. Two independent reviewers screened the titles, abstracts, and keywords for relevance.

Results

407 papers were identified initially, while only 18 articles met the inclusion criteria. Most of the included articles indicated the positive impact of gamification on changing children eating behaviors. This systematic review summarizes the theories followed in developing such interventions and suggests some other theories to use and follow. Moreover, we synthesized the main findings into six recommendations that would assist in combating the global concern regarding childhood obesity if IS/IT researchers and other implement them during the development of any IT intervention.

Conclusions

Using gamification and gaming elements in imparting nutritional knowledge to children and improving their eating habits and behaviors is considered effective generally. It provides them with the needed knowledge and promotes the acquisition of better habits within enjoyable environment.

Thought on Food: A Systematic Review of Current Approaches and Challenges for Food Intake Detection

Nowadays, individuals have very stressful lifestyles, affecting their nutritional habits. In the early stages of life, teenagers begin to exhibit bad habits and inadequate nutrition. Likewise, other people with dementia, Alzheimer's disease, or other conditions may not take food or medicine regularly. Therefore, the ability to monitor could be beneficial for them and for the doctors that can analyze the patterns of eating habits and their correlation with overall health. Many sensors help accurately detect food intake episodes, including electrogastrography, cameras, microphones, and inertial sensors. Accurate detection may provide better control to enable healthy nutrition habits. This paper presents a systematic review of the use of technology for food intake detection, focusing on the different sensors and methodologies used. The search was performed with a Natural Language Processing (NLP) framework that helps screen irrelevant studies while following the PRISMA methodology. It automatically searched and filtered the research studies in different databases, including PubMed, Springer, ACM, IEEE Xplore, MDPI, and Elsevier. Then, the manual analysis selected 30 papers based on the results of the framework for further analysis, which support the interest in using sensors for food intake detection and nutrition assessment. The mainly used sensors are cameras, inertial, and acoustic sensors that handle the recognition of food intake episodes with artificial intelligence techniques. This research identifies the most used sensors and data processing methodologies to detect food intake.

The Effects of mHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic Review

Background

It is well known that regular physical exercise has associated benefits; yet, participation remains suboptimal. Mobile health (mHealth) has become an indispensable medium to deliver behavior change interventions, and there is a growing interest in the gamification apps in mHealth to promote physical activity (PA) participation. Gamification could use game design elements (such as points, leaderboards, and progress bars), and it has the potential to increase motivation for PA and engagement. However, mHealth-based gamification interventions are still emerging, and little is known about the application status and efficacy of such interventions.

Objective

This systematic review aims to investigate gamification apps in mHealth for improving PA levels and simultaneously summarize the impact of gamification interventions on PA participation.

Methods

We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL (EBSCO host), and IEEE Xplore from inception to December 20, 2020. Original empirical research exploring the effects of gamification interventions on PA participation was included. The papers described at least one outcome regarding exercise or PA participation, which could be subjective self-report or objective indicator measurement. Of note, we excluded studies about serious games or full-fledged games.

Results

Of 2944 studies identified from the database search, 50 (1.69%) were included, and the information was synthesized. The review revealed that gamification of PA had been applied to various population groups and broadly distributed among young people but less distributed among older adults and patients with a disease. Most of the studies (30/50, 60%) combined gamification with wearable devices to improve PA behavior change, and 50% (25/50) of the studies used theories or principles for designing gamified PA interventions. The most frequently used game elements were goal-setting, followed by progress bars, rewards, points, and feedback. This review demonstrated that gamification interventions could increase PA participation; however, the results were mixed, and modest changes were attained, which could be attributed to the heterogeneity across studies.

Conclusions

Overall, this study provides an overview of the existing empirical research in PA gamification interventions and provides evidence for the efficacy of gamification in enhancing PA participation. High-quality empirical studies are needed in the future to assess the efficacy of a combination of gamification and wearable activity devices to promote PA, and further exploration is needed to investigate the optimal implementation of these features of game elements and theories to enhance PA participation.

Design and Analysis of Adolescent Physical Health Monitoring System under the Background of Internet of Things and 5G

In recent years, with the rapid development of network communication, 5G technology has brought about higher network speed and more communication requirements. Internet of Things technology has been widely used in many fields. Therefore, this paper realizes the physical health monitoring system under the Internet of Things and 5G communication technology to detect the physical health of teenagers in real time. Based on the in-depth analysis of the theoretical research and application status of the healthy Internet of Things at home and abroad, this paper first studies the theories and methods of teenagers' physical health information collection, collects human body temperature and movement steps, respectively, through wearable devices based on RFID anticollision algorithm, and further estimates human health and movement. The prototype system of the adolescent physical health monitoring system is realized. The system is divided into the terminal node and client information management system: (1) The terminal node is divided into information collection node and information collection node. The hardware circuit of the collection node mainly includes a microcontroller module, a sensor module, and a power circuit, and the collection node mainly includes a microcontroller module, a serial port module, and a power circuit. (2) The client information management system is divided into PC end and the mobile end. The PC end uses asp.net and SQL Server technology to design the database and user interface, and the mobile end uses WeChat public platform for development and design.