Mobile health-based gamification intervention to increase physical activity participation among patients with coronary heart disease (R-13385)

During the stay at Hasselt University, I am mainly involved in three studies related to implementation of digital tools in cardiac telerehabilitation. See below for further details: 1. Discrete Choice Experiment The implementation of telemonitoring is still challenging, the barriers included lack of financial resources, poor fit with existing information and delivery systems, insufficient digital literacy and competencies of health care professionals or unfavorable beliefs and expectations. It is still unclear if health care professionals (e.g., nurses, physiotherapists, dietitians) are willing to use digital technology for ambulatory telemonitoring in preventive cardiology and the factors which facilitate or impede their willingness for working with digital tools. Moreover, for a sustainable implementation of digital health and telemonitoring, it is further important that not only current health care professionals but also medical and nursing students as the future generation of health care providers are targeted. The purpose of our study is to explore (1) if health care professionals and medical and nursing students are willing to use digital technology for ambulatory telemonitoring in preventive cardiology, and (2) to identify and weight the factors which facilitate or impede their willingness for working with digital tools by using a discrete choice experiment. The proposal has been approved by the ethics committee of Jessa Hospital. 2. Digital Health Readiness Questionnaire translation and cultural adjustment The Dutch version of Digital Health Readiness Questionnaire has been developed and validated by Dr. Martijn and Maarten in my Belgium team.This research activity proposes to translate it into Chinese, and use the questionnaire as a way to know if this plays a role in acceptance of the digital health intervention in patients with cardiovascular disease in China. 3. Healthy Nutrition Study In this research activity I am involved in a study in Hasselt University / Jessa Hospital to explore the use of gamification in the context of Healthy Nutrition. The aim of the study is to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of the healthy nutrition application and the effects on adherence to Mediterranean diet, behavior of buying habits, motivation, nutrition knowledge and completion of goals among patients with cardiovascular disease in a cardiac rehabilitation setting. Furthermore, it studies the overall user experience when using the healthy nutrition application.The study is a pilot study that includes a usability study.The proposal has been approved both by the ethics committee of Jessa Hospital and Hasselt University. Involvement in app design updates, study design and studies (e.g. with respect to usability and patient motivation) allow considering gamification in cardiac rehabilitation from a more general perspective than for Physical Activity.

Keywords:cardiac telerehabilitation

Disciplines:Telecommunication and remote sensing, Cardiology, Rehabilitation

Project type:Collaboration project