Jukka Salminen

Empowering Citizens for Well-being and Chronic Disease Management With Wellness Diary

Chronic conditions closely related to lifestyles are the major cause of disability and death in the developed world. Behavior change is the key to managing well-being and preventing and managing chronic diseases. Wellness diary (WD) is a mobile application designed to support citizens in learning about their behavior, and both making and maintaining behavior changes. WD has been found acceptable, useful, and suitable for long-term use as a part of an intervention. When used independently, however, it does not seem to have enough engaging and motivating features to support adoption and long-term commitment. The main improvement needs identified based on a review of WD-related studies were: personalization of the application to individual needs, increasing motivation during early use, maintaining motivation, and aiding in relapse recovery in long-term use. We present concepts to improve the personalization of WD as well as improvements to the feedback and interpretation of the self-observation data. We also present usage models on how this type of mobile application could be utilized.

User experiences of mobile wellness applications in health promotion: User study of Wellness Diary, Mobile Coach and SelfRelax

An ever-increasing number of people are affected by lifestyle-related health risks, such as overweight, physical inactivity and stress. An ongoing Nuadu trial studies the user acceptance and effectiveness of technologies in supporting the wellness management of working-age citizens. The technologies consist of different Web, mobile and wearable solutions. In this paper, we present the user experience results of three mobile wellness applications: the Wellness Diary, Mobile Coach and SelfRelax. We studied their usefulness, perceived usability, usage habits and motivational factors gathered during the first phase of the trial. The data were collected with user experience questionnaires and interviews, as well as actual usage logs from mobile applications. The findings indicate that the usage habits change during the usage period of more than two months towards more practical ways of use. The results also point out several aspects to be considered when developing future wellness applications for long-term use. These are, e.g. adaptability, versatility, guidance and usability.

Tracking Outdoor Sports --- User Experience Perspective

In this paper, the potential role of a sport tracking application is examined in the context of supporting tracking outdoor sporting activities. A user study with 28 participants was conducted to study the usage habits and user experiences evoked. The application consists of a mobile tracking tool and a related web service. It collects and stores workout data such as the route, speed and time, and compiles a training diary that can be viewed in many ways during the exercise and afterwards. Data can be uploaded into a web service for further analysis or for sharing it with others. The results show high interest in tracking outdoor sports with a mobile phone application --- the participants used the application during almost all exercise sessions and stated that they would continue using the application after the study. Sharing data was not perceived as valuable, although some usage scenarios for social sharing arose.

Use of a mobile phone diary for observing weight management and related behaviours.

We studied self-observations related to weight management recorded with a Wellness Diary application on a mobile phone. The data were recorded by 27 participants in a 12-week study, which included a short weight management lecture followed by independent usage of the Wellness Diary. We studied the validity of self-observed weight, and behavioural changes and weight patterns related to weight management success. Self-observed weight data tended to underestimate pre- and poststudy measurements, but there were high correlations between the measures (r ≥ 0.80). The amount of physical activity correlated significantly with weight loss (r = 0.44) as did different measures representing healthy changes in dietary behaviours (r ≥ 0.45). Weight changes and the weekly rhythms of weight indicated a strong tendency to compensate for high-risk periods among successful weight-losers compared to unsuccessful ones. These preliminary results suggest that the mobile phone diary is a valid tool for observing weight management and related behaviours.

A home-based care model for outpatient cardiac rehabilitation based on mobile technologies

Cardiac rehabilitation programs offer effective means to prevent recurrence of a cardiac event. However, poor uptake of current programs have been reported globally. Home based model is considered as an alternative to avoid barriers related to hospital based programs. The challenge in a home based program is to re-establish the link between the patient and clinician regardless of their location. Mobile phones and internet technologies can potentially be used to enable a comprehensive home based care model. We developed tools and integrated model for home based cardiac rehabilitation based on a mobile phone with integrated accelerometer to measure physical exercise and diary to collect information on physiological risk factors and other health information. Video and teleconferencing are used for mentoring sessions and educational multimedia content is transferred via messaging systems to the patients phone to be viewed on demand. The model can be extended to management of other chronic conditions.

Wearable FPGA Based Wireless Sensor Platform

A new wearable sensor platform has been developed. It is based on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device. Because of this the hardware is very flexible and gives the platform unique opportunities for research of a wide range of architectures, applications and signal processing algorithms. The platform has been named NWSP, for Nokia Wrist-Attached Sensor Platform. This document describes the hardware, the firmware and applications of the platform.

A Concept for ICT Assisted Health Promotion in the Occupational Healthcare

Lifestyle related health risks, such as overweight, work stress, and physical inactivity, have become pervasive in most modern societies. These risk factors have a debilitating impact on the well being of citizens and play a major role in the onset of many chronic diseases. As a result, working life is affected due to impaired work ability, decreased productivity, absenteeism, and disability pensions. Lifestyle changes are the key to managing these problems, but they are often difficult to accomplish and maintain. We present a concept for ICT (Information and Communication Technology) assisted health promotion in the occupational healthcare. ICT tools are provided for employees participating in a face-to-face intervention, which is designed to address several health risks. We believe that through ICT, we can provide the employees with more personalized health management support more efficiently than before. The ICT system will be implemented by integrating different technologies into an interoperable system.

Utilizing Rich Bluetooth Environments for Identity Prediction and Exploring Social Networks as Techniques for Ubiquitous Computing

Personal identification and using that information is in the heart of many ubiquitous systems. We present two complementary techniques, namely personal identification without directly observing the subject, and using that information for understanding the social relations between the subjects. We show that with certain presumptions it is possible to predict ones identity with reasonable certainty only by observing ones Bluetooth neighborhood without the need to directly observe the subject. We also show how this information can be used for exploring the social relations between the subjects

Personal health promotion through personalized health technologies — Nuadu experience

Poor lifestyles — overweight, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, sleep deprivation, and stress — are significant risk factors to chronic illnesses, which cause majority of the health care costs. Hence, behavioral change towards healthy lifestyles is one of the keys to health care cost containment. Personal health systems (PHS) offer tools to support behavioral change. As health risks, personal needs and preferences vary from an individual to another, personalization of the PHS is needed. In Nuadu project we have developed a PHS integrating several different personal health technologies. This system was studied in a large (N=354) randomized controlled trial where employees with several health risks participated in a health promotion program. The study will finish in June 2009. User feedback and technology usage logs reveal that especially simple mobile technologies were actively used during the program. However, usage models varied between individuals and time, and there was a significant number of both active users and non-users. The results emphasize that “one size” does not fit all, and instead of individual “killer applications”, PHS with different personalizable and interoperable options should be developed. In addition, screening and profiling methods should be developed to identify those users who would best accept and benefit from technology-supported health promotion. Successful technologies combine high usability and conceptual simplicity to clear and perceivable added value for the end users.