0000000000064516
AUTHOR
Elia Oliver
Efficacy and acceptability of a web platform to teach nutrition education to children.
Introduction: Nutrition Education (NE) has been identified as a key factor to prevent children obesity. Teachers and dietitians are the professionals in charge of transmitting this knowledge to children; however, it has been identified that they do not possess either proper training, or the proper tools to perform this activity. Objectives: to evaluate the acceptability and usability of a NE Internet platform and its two "Serious Games" (SGs) among a sample of elementary school teachers, dietitians, and education students. In addition, to evaluate the efficacy of this platform to teach NE in a sample of children aged 9 to 12 years. Methods: a total of 66 NE professionals and 135 children pa…
Positive mood induction and well being
The aim of this study is to test the role of consecutive positive mood induction virtual procedures on satisfaction of life of people with subclinical levels of sadness and/or anxiety. This is a work in progress and positive effects of mood induction on satisfaction and well being are expected.
Visual Data Mining With Self-organizing Maps for “Self-monitoring” Data Analysis
Data collected in psychological studies are mainly characterized by containing a large number of variables (multidimensional data sets). Analyzing multidimensional data can be a difficult task, especially if only classical approaches are used (hypothesis tests, analyses of variance, linear models, etc.). Regarding multidimensional models, visual techniques play an important role because they can show the relationships among variables in a data set. Parallel coordinates and Chernoff faces are good examples of this. This article presents self-organizing maps (SOM), a multivariate visual data mining technique used to provide global visualizations of all the data. This technique is presented as…
Validation of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) in a sample of Spanish women
Contains fulltext : 124145.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) was developed to measure eating styles that may contribute to or attenuate the development of overweight. It comprises three scales that measure emotional, external and restrained eating. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the internal structure of the Spanish version of the DEBQ using updated psychometric techniques in a sample of women. A sample of 647 Spanish females answered the questionnaire. Both exploratory structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis were used to evaluate the factor structure of the DEBQ. Reliabilities were estimated with Cron…
An E-Health System for Treatment of Childhood Obesity
Obesity is one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century and the most prevalent health problem among children in Europe. Treatment is complex due to the multiple causes of obesity that include many dimensions of children’s lives, such as nutritional habits, physical activity, and lifestyle. E-health technologies can be useful in this area; they may improve health care delivery and acceptability, facilitate the provision of interventions to wider populations, and improve treatment efficacy by taking advantage of new technologies such as the Internet and mobile technologies. The objective of this chapter is to describe an e-health platform called ETIOBE. It comprises three …
Serious Games to Teach Nutrition Education to Children Between 9 to 12 Years Old. Pickit! and Cookit!
The current trend of increase in children obesity is worrying governments around the world and urgent actions are requested. The promotion of Nutrition Education in early stages has shown to be a factor to prevent the gain of weight in children. A tool that is gaining popularity in teaching contents to children are the Serious Games. The objective of this paper is to describe two Serious Games, Pickit! and Cookit! that has as objective to teach Nutrition Education to children between 9 to 12 years old. These games form part of the Modifying Eating and Attitudes through Learning platform, a pedagogical tool created for nutritionists and primary school teachers to transfer nutritional knowled…
Improving childhood obesity treatment using new technologies: the ETIOBE System
Childhood obesity is an increasing public health problem in western culture. Sedentary lifestyles and an “obesogenic environment” are the main influences on children leading to an increase in obesity. The objective of this paper is to describe an e-health platform for the treatment and prevention of childhood obesity called ETIOBE. This e-health platform is an e-therapy system for the treatment of obesity, aimed at improving treatment adherence and promoting the mechanisms of self-control in patients, to obtain weight loss maintenance and to prevent relapse by establishing healthy lifestyle habits. ETIOBE is composed of three different applications, the Clinician Support System (CSS), the H…
Online interventions to prevent mental health problems implemented in school settings: the perspectives from key stakeholders in Austria and Spain
Abstract Background Schools are key settings for delivering mental illness prevention in adolescents. Data on stakeholders’ attitudes and factors relevant for the implementation of Internet-based prevention programmes are scarce. Methods Stakeholders in the school setting from Austria and Spain were consulted. Potential facilitators (e.g. teachers and school psychologists) completed an online questionnaire (N=50), policy makers (e.g. representatives of the ministry of education and health professional associations) participated in semi-structured interviews (N=9) and pupils (N=29, 14–19 years) participated in focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to identify experiences with, attitudes a…
Online prevention programmes for university students: stakeholder perspectives from six European countries
Abstract Background Students beginning university are at a heightened risk for developing mental health disorders. Online prevention and early intervention programmes targeting mental health have the potential to reduce this risk, however, previous research has shown uptake to be rather poor. Understanding university stakeholders’ (e.g. governing level and delivery staff [DS] and students) views and attitudes towards such online prevention programmes could help with their development, implementation and dissemination within university settings. Methods Semi-structured interviews, focus groups and online surveys were completed with staff at a governing level, university students and DS (i.e.…
Healthy Teens @ School: Evaluating and disseminating transdiagnostic preventive interventions for eating disorders and obesity for adolescents in school settings
Background The worldwide prevalence of overweight and obesity is at alarming levels. Nearly one in three children in Europe is overweight or obese. Disordered eating and body image concerns are equally widespread and increase risk for more chronic and severe weight-related problems. Research has shown that online interventions that address both healthy weight regulation and body image can reduce risk for eating disorders and obesity simultaneously and are feasible to implement in school settings. To date, evaluation and dissemination of such programs in Europe is scant. Methods The Healthy Teens @ School study is a multi-country cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing the effect…
Efficacy of a cognitive and behavioral treatment for childhood obesity supported by the ETIOBE web platform
Recently, the prevalence of childhood obesity has increased alar- mingly. Interventions combining eating habits, physical activity (PA), behavioral components, and family support have been shown to be effective, although variables such as self-efficacy beliefs and motivation seem to be important in achieving stable changes. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can provide additional resources to traditional treatments. The objective is to analyze the efficacy of two treatments: a cognitive and behavioral treatment (CBT) focused on the promotion of healthy eating and PA habits, and this CBT intervention supported by a web platform (ETIOBE). Forty-seven obese children were random…