Enabling healthy choices: is ICT the highway to health improvement?

Abstract

a b s t r a c t The White Paper Choosing health acknowledges that there is no lack of information in the system about healthy lifestyles, but the manner of communication of risk and the level of support for lifestyle change need improvement. Action also has to be taken to address inequalities in health and to focus on securing better access to healthier choices for people in disadvantaged groups or areas. Accordingly, this randomized controlled trial examined whether access to a purpose-built health portal for heart disease could enable patients to manage better their heart conditions. We recruited 108 men and women aged 50-74 from coronary heart disease registries from a deprived area of Greater Manchester. Every participant received a new computer and one-year broadband subscription; however, only the experimental group received access to the Hearts of Salford health portal. Our results indicate that the experimental group changed their diet significantly. Specifi cally, they reported eating 'bad foods' (such as chips, sweets, crisps, fried foods, ready meals and cakes/biscuits) signifi cantly less often compared to the controls.

Community-based dietary and physical activity interventions in low socioeconomic groups in the UK: A mixed methods systematic review

“…The most common duration for an intervention was one year (Ashfield-Watt et al, 2007+;Bremner et al, 2006+;Cochrane and Davey, 2008+;Cummins et al, 2005+). Other interventions lasted between two weeks (Steptoe et al, 2003++) and six months (Lindsay et al, 2008+). One intervention lasted four years (Baxter et al, 1997+).…”

“…One multi-component intervention incorporated a combination of behaviour change, and educational, empowerment and medical approaches to lifestyle change (Baxter et al, 1997+) and the other involved providing access to an Internet portal aimed at helping people with heart disease to lead a healthier lifestyle (Lindsay et al, 2008+). Evidence of mixed effectiveness was found on consumption of high fat foods, with one study reporting a positive effect on consumption of low-fat milk but no effect on consumption of low-fat spread, and one study reporting no significant impact (Supplementary Table 6).…”

Quality and readability of online patient information for abdominal aortic aneurysms

“…Hence, information sought from the World Wide Web (WWW) can inform treatment decisions. 3,4 Patient choice has an important role in the management of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), 5 particularly in choosing between open and endovascular repair (EVAR) in anatomically and medically suitable patients. 6 Choice of treatment location is also important, especially now that the volume-outcome relationship in aneurysm surgery is established.…”

Supporting the Process of Help-Seeking by Caregivers of Functionally Dependent Seniors Through eHealth: Protocol for a Multicentric Codesign (Preprint)

“…Amongst other things, one of the pitfalls encountered in this sense is the difficulty of envisaging new technologies or discussing abstract concepts, such as potential functionality, for example [34]. Moreover, we encountered this difficulty during the first codesign sessions.…”

“…Generally, codesign include the creation of a group comprised of 8 to 12 people, who jointly develop an eHealth instrument over three to five codesign meetings, lasting between 90 minutes and a day [31][32][33][34][35][36]. Nonetheless, in the context of the present project, it is, on one hand, unrealistic to develop a tool supporting the process of help seeking behavior in merely five working sessions.…”