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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Chick Clique: Persuasive Technology To Motivate Teenage Girls To Exercise, Tammy Toscos, Anne Faber, Shunying An, Mona Gandhi Jul 2014

Chick Clique: Persuasive Technology To Motivate Teenage Girls To Exercise, Tammy Toscos, Anne Faber, Shunying An, Mona Gandhi

Tammy R Toscos

We are developing a preventative health cell phone application that helps motivate teenage girls to exercise by exploiting their social desire to stay connected with their peers. We targeted girls because they are more likely to become less active throughout adolescence and are more likely to use dangerous techniques for losing weight. The intent of Chick Clique is to provide information at opportune times in order to modify the behaviors of girls and ultimately lead to improved health habits. Our study investigated how collecting, sharing and comparing personal fitness information impacts activity level and health awareness.


“What’S Your Number?” A Survey Of How Parents And Teens Cope With Diabetes In The Context Of Technology Support., Tammy Toscos, Kay Connelly, Yvonne Rogers Jul 2014

“What’S Your Number?” A Survey Of How Parents And Teens Cope With Diabetes In The Context Of Technology Support., Tammy Toscos, Kay Connelly, Yvonne Rogers

Tammy R Toscos

Teenagers make many transitions during adolescence toward adult lifestyles and responsibilities. Teens with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) have the additional burden of assuming responsibility for disease management. The findings reported in this paper represent the perspective of parents and adolescents who are coping with T1D - uncovering various tensions that interfere with the effective use of technology to manage the disease. Predominant themes from a set of semi-structured interviews are used to construct implications for the design of new technology intended to support families coping with T1D.


Using Behavior Change Theory To Understand And Guide Technological Interventions., Tammy Toscos, Kay Connelly Jul 2014

Using Behavior Change Theory To Understand And Guide Technological Interventions., Tammy Toscos, Kay Connelly

Tammy R Toscos

No abstract provided.


Using Data To Promote Healthy Behavior In Children., Tammy Toscos Jul 2014

Using Data To Promote Healthy Behavior In Children., Tammy Toscos

Tammy R Toscos

Childhood offers a number of opportunities for parents to shape the health related attitudes and behaviors of their children. The proposed research described in this paper aims to better understand the ways in which a child’s personal health data can be leveraged to educate and provide a transition to healthy adult behaviors. The target population for this project is children with Type 1 Diabetes and their parents but many of the design issues may be relevant to the management of other chronic diseases as well as general health in childhood.


"…Is It Normal To Be This Sore?": Using An Online Forum To Investigate Barriers To Physical Activity., Tammy Toscos, Sunny Consolvo, David Mcdonald Jul 2014

"…Is It Normal To Be This Sore?": Using An Online Forum To Investigate Barriers To Physical Activity., Tammy Toscos, Sunny Consolvo, David Mcdonald

Tammy R Toscos

The importance of regular physical activity to overall health has been well established, yet U.S. adults are leading increasingly sedentary lives. Research suggests that lowering perceived barriers to physical activity is a critical part of interventions that encourage physical activity. In this paper, we describe the top five barriers—two of which have not been reported as principle barriers in the literature—that emerged from our systematic qualitative coding of an online forum used to support a three month healthy lifestyle intervention. Based on our analysis, we identify design considerations for technologies that encourage and support physical activity. Understanding the needs of …