Personalised guidance services for optimising lifestyle in teen-agers through awareness, motivation and engagement – PEGASO: A pilot study protocol

Abstract

Adolescence is a vulnerable stage in which the development of certain unhealthy behaviours can occur. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among European teenagers is rapidly increasing and may lead to both short- and long-term health complications. The fast development of the ICT, and in particular mobile technologies, together with their increasing diffusion among the EU populations offers an important opportunity for facing these issues in an innovative manner introducing the possibility of a new technological framework to re-design the healthcare system model. The PEGASO project relies on a mobile-and cloud-based ICT platform to set up a system of new healthcare services targeted to teens for obesity prevention. The present paper describes the protocol of a six-month Pilot Study that will be carried out on 525 adolescents in four different European sites (Italy, Catalonia, England, Scotland), aiming to evaluate the PEGASO system usability and effectiveness in promoting healthy lifestyles.