Interactive-Technology Health Behavior Promotion Program for Heart Failure Patients

In a paper just published in Journal of Medical Internet Research -Research Protocols- (with Rony Calo as first author), we describe a pilot study to explore the use of interactive technology to promote heart failure (HF) patients’ engagement in physical activity (PA) and adherence to medication. This IT-based interventions, called Motivate4Change, is a program for delivery in the hospital setting, and the development was guided by the Intervention Mapping protocol. The study is a collaboration between researchers from the EMGO Institute for Health & Care Research and Philips Research.

We used observations at a hospital in the United Kingdom and semistructured interviews with hospitalized HF patients and HF nurses following their completion of Motivate4Change. Results demonstrated that patient needs included empathic and contextual content, interactive learning, and support from others, including nurses and family members. The nurse needs included integration in current educational practices and finding opportunities for provision of the program.

Schoolchildren from lower educated parents and minority groups have less positive home environments and believes regarding energy balance behaviours

To explore differences in personal and home environmental factors that are regarded as determinants of energy balance-related behaviours (i.e. physical activity, sedentary and dietary behaviours; EBRBs) according to parental education and ethnic background among 10-12 year old schoolchildren across Europe, the data from the cross sectional study of the ENERGY project were analysed (also see the ENERGY website). The results of these analyses were just published in BMC Public Health.
A school-based survey among 10-12 year olds was conducted in eight countries across Europe. A range of personal and home environment variables relevant for soft drink consumption, daily breakfast, sport participation and TV time was assessed by means of child report. Personal factors included attitude, health beliefs, and preference/liking. Home environment factors included parental subjective norm, modeling, support, practices and home availability. Children were classified based on parental education (i.e., low vs. high) and ethnic background (i.e., native vs. non-native). Data from 6018 children in the eight countries were included in the analyses.
Our analyses analyses showed that the majority of the variables tested -and especially home environment variables- were more favorable among children from higher educated parents and from native ethnicity. None of the personal and home environment factors was found to be more favorable among children from lower educated parents or non-native ethnicity.