Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles to Teenagers with Mobile Devices: A Case Study in Portugal
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...
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doaj-a8c16946a55046fa85a976bb31820cd62020-11-25T03:40:28ZengMDPI AGHealthcare2227-90322020-09-01831531510.3390/healthcare8030315Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles to Teenagers with Mobile Devices: A Case Study in PortugalMaría Vanessa Villasana0Ivan Miguel Pires1Juliana Sá2Nuno M. Garcia3Maria Canavarro Teixeira4Eftim Zdravevski5Ivan Chorbev6Petre Lameski7Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidade da Beira Interior, 6200-506 Covilhã, PortugalInstituto de Telecomunicações, Universidade da Beira Interior, 6200-001 Covilhã, PortugalFaculty of Health Sciences, Universidade da Beira Interior, 6200-506 Covilhã, PortugalInstituto de Telecomunicações, Universidade da Beira Interior, 6200-001 Covilhã, PortugalUTC de Recursos Naturais e Desenvolvimento Sustentável, Polytechnique Institute of Castelo Branco, 6000-909 Castelo Branco, PortugalFaculty of Computer Science and Engineering, University Ss Cyril and Methodius, 1000 Skopje, North MacedoniaFaculty of Computer Science and Engineering, University Ss Cyril and Methodius, 1000 Skopje, North MacedoniaFaculty of Computer Science and Engineering, University Ss Cyril and Methodius, 1000 Skopje, North MacedoniaEducating 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.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/8/3/315teenagersmobile applicationnutritionphysical activityhealtheducation |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
María Vanessa Villasana Ivan Miguel Pires Juliana Sá Nuno M. Garcia Maria Canavarro Teixeira Eftim Zdravevski Ivan Chorbev Petre Lameski |
spellingShingle |
María Vanessa Villasana Ivan Miguel Pires Juliana Sá Nuno M. Garcia Maria Canavarro Teixeira Eftim Zdravevski Ivan Chorbev Petre Lameski Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles to Teenagers with Mobile Devices: A Case Study in Portugal Healthcare teenagers mobile application nutrition physical activity health education |
author_facet |
María Vanessa Villasana Ivan Miguel Pires Juliana Sá Nuno M. Garcia Maria Canavarro Teixeira Eftim Zdravevski Ivan Chorbev Petre Lameski |
author_sort |
María Vanessa Villasana |
title |
Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles to Teenagers with Mobile Devices: A Case Study in Portugal |
title_short |
Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles to Teenagers with Mobile Devices: A Case Study in Portugal |
title_full |
Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles to Teenagers with Mobile Devices: A Case Study in Portugal |
title_fullStr |
Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles to Teenagers with Mobile Devices: A Case Study in Portugal |
title_full_unstemmed |
Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles to Teenagers with Mobile Devices: A Case Study in Portugal |
title_sort |
promotion of healthy lifestyles to teenagers with mobile devices: a case study in portugal |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Healthcare |
issn |
2227-9032 |
publishDate |
2020-09-01 |
description |
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. |
topic |
teenagers mobile application nutrition physical activity health education |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/8/3/315 |
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