Development healthcare PC and multimedia software for improvement of health status and exercise habits

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of home healthcare products and multimedia software, and suggest ways to stimulate their use by analyzing the effect of a consistent awareness of one's health status on the change in one's exercise habits and health-improvement activities. To examine the difference in the level of interest in health and the amount of exercise between a group of individuals that consistently utilized a personalized health management program using a Home healthcare PC with a workstation and a group of individuals who did not, a 16-week study was conducted on 143 male and female adults residing in the Gyeonggnam region. Pedometers were provided to measure the amount of exercise, and a survey was conducted to examine the changes in the awareness of health-improvement activities. The group of individuals who regularly checked and managed their health status showed a statistically significant increase in the number of steps they took, compared to the group who did not. In addition, a group that utilized the Home healthcare PC showed an increase in the behavior of seeking health counseling and exchanging information about health. This implies that the use of the Home healthcare PC draws users' attention to their health status and increases the motivation to exercise. The use of a Home healthcare PC not only acts as a red flag for the health of the users but also provides a bio-feedback effect. Therefore this system will play an effective role in prevention and post-incidence management of metabolic syndromes by motivating the users to systemically and independently manage their health at home, and to exercise or carry out health-improvement activities.