Abstract-Childhood obesity is becoming increasingly prolific and problematic. Contributors to childhood obesity include decreased levels of physical activity and increased sedentary behavior. Screen-based entertainment may be an important factor in the development of childhood obesity as children and adolescents prefer to spend time using electronic devices than exercising. While it is difficult to encourage children to cease playing video games, it is possible to change these passive screens to active ones. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been utilized by academics and researchers to promote levels of physical activity among young people. This paper is part of our continuous research into the use of technology in the facilitation and motivation of children to be more physically active. This paper presents the "MySteps" framework that has been developed to manage youth screen time and exercise performance statistics. By developing technology-based solutions, we intend to increase children and adolescents awareness of their levels of physical activity and screen time. Consequently, self-monitoring and management of screen time and physical activity levels may lead to more active living beginning at an early age and continuing throughout life.
Active living is a way of life that promotes health and active behavior. Technology in modern life can either act as a barrier for active living or facilitate this lifestyle, depending on which technology people choose to use in their everyday lives. Finding a technology that facilitates an individuals' physical workout while also motivating them and promoting physical activity levels, first requires investigation of the current technologies available. Physical activity monitoring technologies have a range of types, mechanisms and capabilities. Physical activity trackers are also varied in their way of attachment to individuals' bodies. For example, they can be little devices for attachment, such as waist-clips or wrist-bands, or they can be applications installed one a user's mobile or tablet device. This paper is a part of our ongoing research into active living technology adaption and use. The focus of our current work seeks to find the most applicable and accurate types of these devices. We aim through the work presented in this paper to examine some of the current available physical activity monitors including Fitbit One, Fitbit Flex, Jawbone UP and Health iPhone application. In short, our study has revealed important variation being observed in the physical activity data, based on where monitors are held by or attached to a user.
Childhood obesity is becoming increasingly prolific and problematic. Contributors to childhood obesity include decreased levels of physical activity and increased sedentary behavior. Screen-based entertainment may be an important factor in the development of childhood obesity as children and adolescents prefer to spend time using electronic devices than exercising. While it is difficult to encourage children to cease playing video games, it is possible to change these passive screens to active ones. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been utilized by academics and researchers to promote levels of physical activity among young people. This paper is part of our continuous research into the use of technology in the facilitation and motivation of children to be more physically active. This paper presents the "MySteps" framework that has been developed to manage youth screen time and exercise performance statistics. By developing technology-based solutions, we intend to increase children and adolescents awareness of their levels of physical activity and screen time. Consequently, self-monitoring and management of screen time and physical activity levels may lead to more active living beginning at an early age and continuing throughout life.
MySteps is an inspiring acronym for a novel active living framework detailed in this paper. Managing Youth Screen Time and Exercise Performance Statistics (MySteps) is a cohesive collection of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) integrated in a unique way for specific application in the adolescent demographic health domain. Specifically, it is used to promote awareness and real time feedback of the need for balance between screen time and exercise performance. This is essentially achieved through the visual representation of those daily statistical elements using contemporary readily available mobile and health technologies.
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