Mobile Applications and Healthy Habits of Adolescents, a Strange Couple: Pilot Study of the Efficacy of the Healthy Jeart App

Abstract

The present study aims to analyse the healthy habits of a group of adolescents before and after an educational intervention using the Healthy Jeart mobile app. This is the first pilot study on Healthy Jeart, based on a single intervention with experimental and control groups. The participants were secondary education students in the third and fourth years, from an educational centre in Huelva (Spain). They were distributed between a control group and an experimental group. Information about their habits was obtained through a questionnaire prepared from the HSBC (Health Behaviour in School-aged Children) instrument, which was administered before and after the intervention. Although the results do not indicate a substantial change in the habits of the participants, there were some intragroup differences. In the experimental group, a difference was obtained in the feeling of being fit and healthy. The global perspective on health of the app would explain this change.