Health Promotion
Designing a New eHealth Service for Children with Obesity: How to Engage, Commit, and Take Action for Dietary Lifestyle Changes
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anita Das
The last two decades the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents has increased significantly globally. Early interventions to reduce weight and prevent further weight increase, has shown to be important to avoid obesity in adult life. Obesity leads to enormous consequences, and encounters reduced quality of life and increased prevalence of lifestyle related illnesses such as diabetes, heart-and coronary diseases and cancer When it comes to weight reduction among children, reducing calorie intake of food has shown to be the most effective intervention. In Norway the primary health care has monitor children’ development by measuring height and weight when the children are at age 8 and 13. If the child is identified as overweight, the parents and children are offered a follow-up program, which involves face-to-face consultations with a school nurse. However, a number of families reject participation in this program due to several reasons. In this project we aim to design and implement an online follow-up program for children and their caregivers, to facilitate the lifestyle changes with focus on nutrition and dietary habits. We have conducted an insight study with design-workshops and interviews with various stakeholders, and a digital online application is now under development. During autumn 2019 we will conduct a pilot study where families in the targeted user group are to try out the online application. In the research we share insights and experiences from the pilot study, and how we have used participatory design methods during this case study.
The Effect of Colored Light on the Emotions of Children
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Junghwa Kim Suh, Elizabeth K Park, Jacqueline Harbin
As the incidents of violence and hatred are filled in our everyday news, we wonder why the sense of humanism and empathy are lost in our world today. Research indicates that the lack of EI (Emotional Intelligence) may be one of the reasons for this issue. EI has an internal aspect (psychological development) and external side (physical environment). Studies also show that physical design elements have an impact on psychological development. Color and light are two of the most influential factors within an interior environment, impacting mood and energy level of occupants. However, there is limited research regarding the effects of colored light on people’s psychological state despite the increase in consumer demand for color changing mood lights. Research specifies that certain color values and light can elicit physical and psychological responses that may induce various emotional states. Previous research on colored light shows a correlation between the pleasantness and energy levels of students. This study continues the earlier research of colored lighting in order to understand the relationship between colored light and the emotional state of students in different age groups. This study focuses on children between the ages of 3-6 years old. The results of this study may impact the interior design of early childhood educational environments especially lighting design to fit the needs of the children in an effort to foster emotional intelligence.
Giving Voice: Making Visible Health Inequalities Through Design
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Claire Craig
Despite the long-term trend of improvement in life expectancy and infant mortality stark inequalities remain. This paper describes a research enquiry exploring the role of design in understanding and the factors leading to health inequalities in older people in a northern city in the UK. Following ethical approval design researchers positioned themselves within a national voluntary agency supporting individuals with high levels of socio-economic need. In phase one of the study the researchers worked to create a series of cultural probes (Gaver et al 1999) that were co-designed with a group of 8 individuals who regularly accessed the agency for support with food and finance. These were used as the basis of interactions and interviews with a further 50 individuals within the broader community to build understanding of the experiences of people living in poverty and factors that exacerbated the challenging situations individuals experienced on a day to day basis and which impacted on quality of life. Analysis of this data highlighted that a significant number of events that had triggered crises occurred as a consequence of poorly designed systems. The final phase of the research visualised these events and made these the basis of an interactive game which was shared as part of a wider exhibition bringing together people living in the communities, health and government agencies. The paper shares lessons learned from the research and the potential of design to make visible key societal issues impacting on health and wellbeing.
