ResumoObjetivo: Verificar a associação entre o conhecimento da Aids, atividade sexual e condições sociodemográficas em idosos participantes de programa de educação permanente de Universidade do Nordeste do Brasil. Método: Estudo transversal, realizado de março a julho de 2006, com amostra equivalente a 165 idosos, selecionados por amostragem casual simples. A coleta dos dados foi feita mediante entrevista semiestruturada. A variável dependente -conhecimento da Aids -incluiu conceito da doença, prevenção, transmissão, agente etiológico, existência de tratamento e impossibilidade de cura. Dados sociodemográficos e atividade sexual corresponderam às variáveis independentes. Na análise estatística utilizou-se o programa SPSS, versão 13.0, com aplicação dos testes de independência X² de Pearson e o X² de Kendall, adotando-se o valor de p<0,05 para a rejeição da hipótese nula. Resultados: As respostas incompletas e incoerentes quanto ao conhecimento e transmissão corresponderam a 71,5% e 52,7%, respectivamente. O uso do preservativo foi citado por 56,9% como meio de prevenção, 66% referiram existir tratamento e 66,7%, ausência de cura para a doença. O agente etiológico foi identificado por 64%. Quanto aos dados sociodemográficos e atividade sexual; idade 59,3% (60-69 anos), escolaridade 72% (mais de nove anos de estudo), estado civil 34,5% (casados), renda 45,5% (2-4 salários mínimos), 24,8% com atividade sexual. Verificada associação significante (p<0,01) entre o conhecimento da Aids e a escolaridade. Conclusões: Ainda que os resultados não possam ser extrapolados para a população idosa em geral, pode-se supor que o nível de conhecimento sobre a Aids ainda é precário, destacando-se a importância da escolaridade. AbstractPurpose: To verify the association between knowledge of Aids, sexual activity and social-demographic conditions in aged participants of a permanent education program at Brazil Northeast University. Method: Cross-sectional study, carried REV. BRAS. GERIATR. GERONTOL., RIO DE JANEIRO, 2011; 14(1):39-48 through from March to July 2006, included a sample of 165 aged people, by a simple non randomized sampling. Data collection was made with a halfstructuralized interview. Aids knowledge was the dependent variable and included concept of illness, prevention, transmission, etiological agent, existence of treatment and cure impossibility. Socio-demographic data and sexual activity corresponded to the independent variable. For statistical analysis, with SPSS software, version 13.0, Pearson independence X² test and Kendall X² test were performed, adopting p< 0.05 for rejection of null hypothesis. Results: Incomplete or incoherent answers of Aids knowledge and transmission corresponded to 71.5% and 52.7%, respectively. Condom use for prevention was reported by 56,9%, approximately 66% referred treatment existence for Aids and 66.7%, absence of cure. The etiological agent was identified by 64%. Socio-demographic data and sexual activity data were: age 59.3% (60-69 years), schoolarship 72% (more than 9 years of...

Personalised nutrition is a novel public health strategy aiming to promote positive diet and lifestyle changes. Tailored dietary and physical activity advice may be more appropriate than a generalised 'one-size-fits-all' approach as it is more biologically relevant to the individual. Information and computing technology, smartphones and mobile applications have become an integral part of modern life and thereby present the opportunity for novel methods to encourage individuals to lead a healthier lifestyle. This article introduces the European Union-funded PROTEIN project (PeRsOnalised nutriTion for hEalthy livINg) consortium and introduces the associated work packages. The primary objective of the PROTEIN project is to produce a novel adaptable mobile application suite based on sound nutrition and physical activity advice from experts in their field, accessible to all population groups, with differing health outcomes, whose behaviour can be tracked with a variety of sensors and health hazard perception. The mobile application 'ecosystem' that will be developed by the consortium includes a platform, mobile suite, cloud services, artificial intelligence advisor, game suite, modelling of expert's knowledge, users' behaviour data collection, data analysis and a dashboard for healthcare

The ubiquitous nature of smartphone ownership, its broad application and usage, along with its interactive delivery of timely feedback are appealing for health-related behavior change interventions via mobile apps. However, users' perspectives about such apps are vital in better bridging the gap between their design intention and effective practical usage. In this vein, a modified technology acceptance model (mTAM) is proposed here, to explain the relationship between users' perspectives when using an AI-based smartphone app for personalized nutrition and healthy living, namely, PROTEIN, and the mTAM constructs toward behavior change in their nutrition and physical activity habits. In particular, online survey data from 85 users of the PROTEIN app within a period of 2 months were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and regression analysis (RA) to reveal the relationship of the mTAM constructs, i.e., perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEoU), perceived novelty (PN), perceived personalization (PP), usage attitude (UA), and usage intention (UI) with the users' behavior change (BC), as expressed via the acceptance/rejection of six related hypotheses (H1–H6), respectively. The resulted CFA-related parameters, i.e., factor loading (FL) with the related p-value, average variance extracted (AVE), and composite reliability (CR), along with the RA results, have shown that all hypotheses H1–H6 can be accepted (p &lt; 0.001). In particular, it was found that, in all cases, FL &gt; 0.5, CR &gt; 0.7, AVE &gt; 0.5, indicating that the items/constructs within the mTAM framework have good convergent validity. Moreover, the adjusted coefficient of determination (R2) was found within the range of 0.224–0.732, justifying the positive effect of PU, PEoU, PN, and PP on the UA, that in turn positively affects the UI, leading to the BC. Additionally, using a hierarchical RA, a significant change in the prediction of BC from UA when the UI is used as a mediating variable was identified. The explored mTAM framework provides the means for explaining the role of each construct in the functionality of the PROTEIN app as a supportive tool for the users to improve their healthy living by adopting behavior change in their dietary and physical activity habits. The findings herein offer insights and references for formulating new strategies and policies to improve the collaboration among app designers, developers, behavior scientists, nutritionists, physical activity/exercise physiology experts, and marketing experts for app design/development toward behavior change.

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