Practical Approach to Designing and Implementing a Recommendation System for Healthy Challenges

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy eating habits. It is crucial to promote proper training and healthy habits for all to prevent physical and cognitive decline. This should be a priority in health and education initiatives to reduce deaths and noncommunicable diseases. Guidelines for nutrition, physical activity, and sleep emphasize the importance of healthy habits. The goal is to develop a recommendation tool with a diverse range of challenges to positively impact users’ health. Methods: The process involves thoroughly obtaining precise user profiles through widely used questionnaires such as the Short-Form Health survey, the short Healthy Eating Index, and the Oviedo Sleep Questionnaire, and characterizing the challenges. Then, an algorithm will be developed to identify and prioritize the most suitable challenges for each user, ensuring personalized recommendations. Results: A pool of 30 health challenges was created based on reputable recommendations and experts. The system underwent validation by external experts and received positive user feedback, confirming its effectiveness. The panel of experts and users validated the personalized and reliable recommendations. Conclusions: Simple lifestyle interventions have shown promise for primary prevention in developed countries. A prototype system has been created to evaluate the individual weakness of users and suggest evidence-based lifestyle challenges. The system conducts a thorough health assessment and ensures feasibility for preventive purposes. Validation has proven the system’s effectiveness in recommending health-enhancing challenges with no adverse effects. The design of the model supports the seamless addition of new challenges by eventual third parties, ensuring interoperability and scalability.