“Healthcare on a Wrist”: Increasing Compliance Through Checklists on Wearables in Obesity (Self-)Management Programs

Abstract

Increasingly, healthcare can get on our wrists. Unhealthy lifestyle habits (e.g., sedentary behavior, nutrient-poor diets) result in higher levels of chronic diseases (e.g., CVD, obesity) and, paradoxically, the first step in disease management requires radical lifestyle changes, away from the unhealthy ones. These changes are difficult for patients and require day-to-day planning and adherence to new behaviors (increased physical activity, special diet programs) for best health outcomes in a long-term. We envision an important role of personalized, miniaturized Information Technologies (IT), specifically smart watches-supporting the patient's self-management efforts in any daily life context, acting as a reminder for specific activities and documenting the patient's progress via checklist-based approach. We delineate the requirements and design choices for the WATCH-list-an example of self-management service for obesity patients' compliance to diet programs. We discuss the chronic illness self-management and role of IT in increasing the patient's self-efficacy of activities contributing to health, in turn increasing the patient's compliance to these activities and therefore facilitating better health outcomes in a long term.