A Family Health App: Engaging Children to Manage Wellness of Adults

Katule, Ntwa and Rivett, Ulrike and Densmore, Melissa (2016) A Family Health App: Engaging Children to Manage Wellness of Adults, Proceedings of Seventh ACM Symposium on Computing and Development, 18-20 November 2016, Nairobi, Kenya, 7-16, ACM.

[img] PDF
a7-katule.pdf

Download (532kB)

Abstract

The pandemic of lifestyle-related chronic diseases has led to an advent of personal health informatics, often using mobiles and gamification to persuade individuals to adopt healthful lifestyles. However, this approach can constrain benefits to younger, more technically literate beneficiaries, despite the higher need for PHI in older populations. In prior work, we proposed that children in the household aid in reaching beneficiaries, targeting intermediated use. This study compares the use of two versions of a nutrition and exercise monitoring app in 14 households. One supported logging and occasional SMS reminders while the other added gamification elements. We measure self-determination with respect to each version using pre- and post-tests, also drawing on observation and interview data. Our findings suggest that virtual rewards can enhance use of such systems through intermediaries, via benefits such as increased perceived competence. We highlight the challenges and design implications involved in fostering engagement in our system.

Item Type: Conference paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: Intermediated Interactions, Personal Health Informatics, Intermediary Users
Subjects: Information systems
Alternate Locations: https://doi-org.ezproxy.uct.ac.za/10.1145/3001913.3001920
Date Deposited: 06 Apr 2017
Last Modified: 10 Oct 2019 15:32
URI: http://pubs.cs.uct.ac.za/id/eprint/1174

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item