There is overwhelming evidence that adding financial incentives to existing interventions for health behaviour change improves their efficacy. However, there are still questions regarding the sustainability of the effects after the incentives have been removed and what would be the optimal design of an incentive. Furthermore, a major [...]
The study focuses on eHealth, or more specifically, the comparison between guided (human-supported) and unguided (self-help) digital eHealth interventions. Previous research has shown that when comparing the effectiveness of guided versus unguided eHealth interventions the results are inconsistent (Joiner, Nam & Whittemore, 2017; Kelders, Bohlmeijer, Pots & [...]
Almost everyone has experienced pain before. Pain is an individual and subjective experience. Usually, the pain can be treated successfully. However, if pain episodes last longer than three to six months, they are classified as chronic pain. Today, chronic pain is one of the most common illnesses in [...]
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death and hospitalization both worldwide and in Switzerland. The direct and indirect socio-economic consequences are of great relevance. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 13% of deaths worldwide in 2012 were caused by coronary heart disease (WHO, 2016). Physical [...]
The digital diet coaches of this project aim to provide fully-automated interventions to improve food literacy and support health-promoting dietary behaviors. Results of menuCH, the National Nutrition Survey conducted 2014 in Switzerland, showed that adults’ food intake is not fully in line with Swiss food-based [...]
Diabetes mellitus Type II is a common chronic disease. To manage blood glucose levels patients need to follow medical recommendations for healthy eating, physical activity, and medication adherence in their everyday life. Illness management is mainly shared with partners or spouses and may involve social support [...]
Recent advancements in mobile sensing technologies have led to novel intervention concepts, including just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAI). The JITAI concept shows great potential because it aims to provide the right intervention, at the right time. The right timing of an intervention is crucial so that the content can [...]
Health literacy is a crucial ingredient of successful asthma self-management. Studies have shown that a lack of asthma health literacy leads to lower levels of asthma control and thus more severe asthma symptoms, which, in turn, results in a suboptimal course of the disease. However, due to [...]
Background: Smartphones enable the implementation of just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs) that tailor the delivery of health interventions over time to user-varying and time-varying context characteristics. Ideally, JITAIs include effective intervention components, and delivery tailoring is based on effective moderators of intervention effects. Using machine learning techniques to [...]
Substance use is one of the biggest contributors to the health burden in 10-24-year olds. School-based life-skills trainings were effective in delaying or preventing problematic substance use among adolescents, but the implementation and dissemination of scalable and low-cost public health interventions represent serious challenges. ready4life [...]
