A smart phone application in improving healthy lifestyles and health outcomes for school-age children with asthma

Asthma is a complex multifactorial disease, increasing evidence shows that environmental and lifestyle factors may modify epigenetic mechanism of asthma development. Hence, the monitoring of asthma is essential for disease control and management. As mobile health technology has been widely applied in the prevention and management of health problem, smart phone applications (apps) providing social connection offer a potentially powerful approach to behavioral change through delivering convenient tailored intervention. However, there is limited evidence supporting apps can improve asthma self-management. Hence, the purposes of this study were to (1) develop an age-appropriate tailored KidsHealth app to improve healthy lifestyles for school-age children with asthma; (2) evaluate the feasibility and accessibility of interventions of the app; and (3) investigate the effectiveness of the app in improving healthy behaviors and outcomes for the users.

[1]  J. Crane,et al.  Obesity and asthma in 11–12 year old New Zealand children in 1989 and 2000 , 2004, Thorax.

[2]  S. Prescott,et al.  Epigenetics and prenatal influences on asthma and allergic airways disease. , 2011, Chest.

[3]  Todd W. Sands,et al.  Development and pilot testing of a mobile health solution for asthma self-management: asthma action plan smartphone application pilot study. , 2013, Canadian respiratory journal.

[4]  M. Ege,et al.  The asthma epidemic. , 2006, The New England journal of medicine.

[5]  Margaret Grey,et al.  An internet obesity prevention program for adolescents. , 2013, The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

[6]  Margaret Allman-Farinelli,et al.  Development of Smartphone Applications for Nutrition and Physical Activity Behavior Change , 2012, JMIR research protocols.

[7]  Johannes Brug,et al.  International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Environmental Influences on Energy Balance-related Behaviors: a Dual-process View , 2005 .

[8]  A. Nickels,et al.  Innovations in Technology: Social Media and Mobile Technology in the Care of Adolescents with Asthma , 2012, Current Allergy and Asthma Reports.

[9]  J. Car,et al.  Smartphone and tablet self management apps for asthma. , 2013, The Cochrane database of systematic reviews.

[10]  Cecilia Mascolo,et al.  Smartphones for Large-Scale Behavior Change Interventions , 2013, IEEE Pervasive Computing.

[11]  Alexander P. Cotter,et al.  Internet interventions to support lifestyle modification for diabetes management: a systematic review of the evidence. , 2014, Journal of diabetes and its complications.

[12]  M. O’Donnell,et al.  Effectiveness of a smartphone application to promote physical activity in primary care: the SMART MOVE randomised controlled trial. , 2014, The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

[13]  S. Chinn.  Obesity and Asthma: Evidence For and Against a Causal Relation , 2003, The Journal of asthma : official journal of the Association for the Care of Asthma.

[14]  E. von Mutius,et al.  Is obesity a risk factor for childhood asthma? , 2001, Allergy.

[15]  Jeffrey D Fisher,et al.  Information-motivation-behavioral skills model-based HIV risk behavior change intervention for inner-city high school youth. , 2002, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[16]  K. Berhane,et al.  Obesity and the risk of newly diagnosed asthma in school-age children. , 2003, American journal of epidemiology.

[17]  Jennifer Mallow,et al.  Delivering telemedicine interventions in chronic respiratory disease , 2014, Breathe.

[18]  R. Whittaker,et al.  Do physical activity and dietary smartphone applications incorporate evidence-based behaviour change techniques? , 2014, BMC Public Health.

[19]  Jing-Long Huang,et al.  The prevalence, severity and seasonal variations of asthma, rhinitis and eczema in Taiwanese schoolchildren , 2005, Pediatric allergy and immunology : official publication of the European Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

[20]  K Rivet Amico,et al.  The Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills model of antiretroviral adherence and its applications , 2008, Current HIV/AIDS reports.

[21]  N. Lien,et al.  Evidence-based development of school-based and family-involved prevention of overweight across Europe: The ENERGY-project's design and conceptual framework , 2010, BMC public health.