Promotion of Healthy Nutrition and Physical Activity Lifestyles for Teenagers: A Systematic Literature Review of The Current Methodologies

• Main Authors: María Vanessa Villasana, Ivan Miguel Pires, Juliana Sá, Nuno M. Garcia, Eftim Zdravevski, Ivan Chorbev, Petre Lameski, Francisco Flórez-Revuelta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-03-01
• Series: Journal of Personalized Medicine
• Subjects: diet; nutrition; physical activity; education; methods; teenagers; healthy lifestyles; gamification; health; mobile devices
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/10/1/12

Amid obesity problems in the young population and apparent trends of spending a significant amount of time in a stationary position, promoting healthy nutrition and physical activities to teenagers is becoming increasingly important. It can rely on different methodologies, including a paper diary and mobile applications. However, the widespread use of mobile applications by teenagers suggests that they could be a more suitable tool for this purpose. This paper reviews the methodologies for promoting physical activities to healthy teenagers explored in different studies, excluding the analysis of different diseases. We found only nine studies working with teenagers and mobile applications to promote active lifestyles, including the focus on nutrition and physical activity. Studies report using different techniques to captivate the teenagers, including questionnaires and gamification techniques. We identified the common features used in different studies, which are: paper diary, diet diary, exercise diary, notifications, diet plan, physical activity registration, gamification, smoking cessation, pictures, game, and SMS, among others.