Context, and the personal, dynamic guidance it allows, is what separates mHealth from past health and wellness programs. Data is essential to proper health context, but that guidance can’t exist without technology capable of interpreting data in a way users can take advantage of. A lack of context means a lack of results.
According to the National Health Interview Survey, “The prevalence of obesity among U.S. adults aged 20 and over increased from 19.4% in 1997 to 30.6% in January-September 2015.” This finding is testament not only to the millions of Americans in need of health programs, but also the alarming speed at which obesity is increasing nationwide.
We need health programs capable of tailoring their feedback to the individual needs and habits of their users. In an ideal world, physicians and their patients would have a direct, convenient line of communication at all times. Physicians would collect the data and provide guidance on how to proceed in terms of the patient’s fitness, diet and sleep habits.
Obviously, this approach simply cannot scale up. However, mHealth affords us the next best thing: Apps and wearables designed by physicians to specifically maintain a dialogue with users. As researchers from Penn State and UC-Davis recently reported, “mHealth technologies may be used… to encourage sustained engagement to achieve individual health goals.” I would go a little further by saying mHealth not only can and should encourage engagement, but that it needs to.
Behavior change cannot happen overnight. It comes through the motivation of the user to make these changes and stick to them until new behavior has a chance to become second nature, i.e., the default habit. Contextual health not only helps patients identify what habits are unhealthy and how to refine them, but it is also capable of providing the motivation they need to maintain healthy lifestyles.
And what is a healthy lifestyle? Health is an interconnected system, so it’s no single action or focus but the culmination of habits in three key areas of health: fitness, nutrition and sleep. Integrating beneficial strategies from each of these areas allows users to maximize the success of their efforts and is part of a truly contextual health program.
Think of it this way: What is the value of walking 10,000 steps every day? The answer changes depending on who you are, not to mention the fact that the number itself isn’t a magic finish line. For those already in fairly good physical condition, 10,000 steps is something of a foundation on which they can perform more strenuous exercises. For those in poor physical condition, 10,000 steps is more of a benefit to their health, as it can be an important starting point and convenient daily habit to develop. Step-tracking has become massively popular among people of at every level of health and is a driving factor in the adoption and current ubiquity of wearable fitness devices, with an estimated 123 million more units to be sold in 2016.
When looking for lasting results in an unhealthy population, integrating this popularity with professional guidance can help build long-term routines. Since aerobic exercise has been shown to help sleep, how could 10,000 steps be used to help a person’s rest habits? What foods will help someone improve their ability to walk 10,000 steps? Keeping these sorts of questions in mind when designing these types of apps helps keep users engaged when taking mHealth into the real world.
Obviously, that’s only a part of the comprehensive potential for contextual mHealth, but it speaks to the greater philosophy of what mHealth needs to become. Future mHealth apps, and a select few currently on the market, need to fulfill the needs of contextual health in order to be viable sources of true health improvement.
Steven Willey, MD and Chief Scientist of Olumia Life, is a St. Louis, Missouri-based doctor best known for his innovative work on optimizing the human body’s metabolic performance. Dr. Willey attended Northwestern University Medical School and completed his residency at Stanford University. From there he opened his own medical practice at St. Luke’s Hospital in St. Louis. Dr. Willey is the author of Reprogram Your Life: Bioscience for a Healthier You, which describes his integrated method for achieving and maintaining overall health through coordinated improvements in fitness, nutrition and sleep. In 2013, he founded Olumia Life, formerly known as YouPlus Health, a science-driven mobile health-coaching platform. He has worked with a team of physicians, psychologists and computer scientists to design this platform that is scientifically proven through peer-reviewed published research to help people lose weight, reduce their waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressures and increase their HDL and VO2 max. By creating this platform, Dr. Willey hopes to have the ability to reach more people with his groundbreaking research. Folllow Dr. Willey on Twitter, @DrSteve
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