CHALLENGE
By 2020, lifestyle-related and potentially preventable conditions are expected to account for 70% of all health conditions requiring treatment.

Substantial resources are spent to provide information and motivate lifestyle changes, but maintaining these changes is a big challenge. Therefore, developing initiatives to prevent or minimise the consequences of lifestyle-related conditions is crucially important for individual citizens as well as society at large.

FINDINGS
It is necessary to take a realistic view of the user’s life. Parties, frozen TV dinners and the occasional muffin are part of the user’s life.

It is more efficient to consider short-term rather than long-term consequences.

It should be possible to “save up points”, for example for an extra beer on Friday night, by making particularly healthy choices for a period of time.

SOLUTION
A healthy lifestyle is essential – as most people know. But we also know that it can be hard to stick to in practice. One form of help is a “barometer”, a mobile phone application that uses stored data about the user’s current lifestyle patterns to display his or her physical condition and the consequences of
particular choices. The health barometer, which was developed as a prototype as part of the project, provides motivation for a healthier lifestyle through information, advice and support in a manner that is humorous, yet serious and non-judgmental. It offers a medium where the user can stay in touch with
professionals and other users through interactive communication.

Partners involved Wei-con ApS, Mercon A/S, Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University, Caretech Innovation.

The initiative is funded by the EU and Regional Development Programme of the Central Denmark Region and anchored in the Alexandra Institute A/S.