IDHEApp

Technology to promote healthy lifestyles in adolescents with intellectual disabilities

What is IDHEApp?

Physical activity and adequate nutrition play a crucial role in improving the health of the population. However, more than half of adults over 18 years of age do not comply with international recommendations on physical activity and this situation is even more concerning when talking about persons with intellectual disabilities. Insufficient physical activity, together with a diet increasingly based on processed products or certain risk behaviours (e.g., smoking or excessive alcohol consumption), lead to a significant deterioration of the health in this population.

A recent study in the prestigious journal Lancet (5) has shown that physical inactivity is directly related to the main pathologies globally and that reducing unhealthy behaviors could substantially improve the health of the population. Specifically, in the population group with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), the association between physical activity and all causes of mortality has been evidenced.

It is surprising that adults with intellectual disabilities spend 70% of the day in a sedentary attitude. These habits concern international organizations such as the World Health Organization and the educational system, at all levels, or healthcare services, should not be oblivious to this situation.

With this evidence in mind, IDHEApp will develop an application for mobile environments based on gamification that will promote healthy lifestyles (i.e., physical activity and eating habits) among young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

This project allows us to address the issue of healthy habits through a new approach. This is one of the main objectives of the call “addressing common needs and priorities in the fields of education, training, youth and sport”. Through this partnership we will analyze the different parameters that affect lifestyles jointly, and not individually as has been done so far. This fact will allow the use of personalized interventions that increase their adherence and commitment. Therefore, the main objective of this project is to develop an application for mobile environments that, applying the principles of gamification, positively affects the physical activity and eating habits of young people with intellectual disabilities.

What do we want to achieve?

Raise awareness of the importance of healthy and active living among young Europeans with intellectual disabilities.
Provide digital resources and tools to the partner entities of the exchange to improve lifestyle of young people with intellectual disabilities.
Analyze the current state of use and acceptance of technologies as support in the management of health in adolescent with intellectual disabilities.
Increase physical activity and improve eating behavior (nutritional balance) of young people with intellectual disabilities.

How are we achieving our goals?

1- Review of the main international recommendations on sedentary lifestyle and physical activity for this target group and development of a mobile app to enhance physical activity, sedentary lifestyle and nutrition;

2 – Implementation of a multicentre randomized clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a lifestyle intervention program in adolescents with IDD;

3 – Development of guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior with public health recommendations for adolescents with IDD on the amount of physical activity (frequency, intensity and duration) required to offer significant health benefits.