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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Digital Public Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1420171
This article is part of the Research Topic Smart Devices for Personalized Nutrition and Healthier Lifestyle Behavior Change View all 5 articles

MoveONParkinson: Developing a personalized motivational solution for Parkinson's Disease management

Provisionally accepted
Beatriz Alves Beatriz Alves 1*Pedro R. Mota Pedro R. Mota 2*Daniela Sineiro Daniela Sineiro 2*Ricardo Carmo Ricardo Carmo 2*Pedro Santos Pedro Santos 3,4*Patrícia Macedo Patrícia Macedo 3,5*João C. Carreira João C. Carreira 6*Rui Madeira Rui Madeira 3,4Sofia B. Dias Sofia B. Dias 7*Carla M. Pereira Carla M. Pereira 6*
  • 1 School of Health, Polytechnic Institute of Setubal, Setúbal, Setubal, Portugal
  • 2 Escola Superior de Tecnologia de Setúbal, Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Setúbal, Portugal
  • 3 Other, Setúbal, Portugal
  • 4 NOVA Laboratory for Computer Science and Informatics, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, New University of Lisbon, Caparica, Portugal
  • 5 Centre of Technology and Systems, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, New University of Lisbon, Caparica, Portugal
  • 6 Comprehensive Health Research Center, New University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
  • 7 Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Human Performance (CIPER), Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada da Costa, Dafundo 1499-002, Lisbon, Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Despite the effectiveness of exercise-based interventions on symptom management and disease progression, many people with Parkinson's Disease (PwPD) do not exercise regularly. In line with the ubiquitous use of digital health technology, the MoveONParkinson digital solution was developed, comprising a Web Platform and a Mobile App with a Conversational Agent (CA). The interface features were designed based on the principles of Social Cognitive Theory with the goal of fostering behavior change in PwPD for sustained exercise participation and improved disease management. Using a mixed methods approach, this study aimed to collect feedback, assess the acceptability of the Mobile App and the Web Platform, and evaluate the usability of the latter. Quantitative data, which included questionnaire responses and the System Usability Scale (SUS) scores, were analyzed using descriptive statistics, heatmaps, and correlation matrices. Qualitative data, comprising semi-structured and thinking-aloud interview transcripts, were subjected to an inductive thematic analysis. A total of 28 participants were involved in the study, comprising 20 physiotherapists (average age: 34.50±10.4), and eight PwPD (average age: 65.75±8.63; mean Hoehn & Yahr: 2.0 (±0.76)). Three main themes emerged from the thematic analysis of the interviews, namely: Self-management (Theme 1), User Engagement (Theme 2), and Recommendations (Theme 3). The assessment of the Mobile App and the CA (mean score: 4.42/5.0±0.79) suggests that PwPD were able to navigate this interface without notable difficulties. The mean SUS score of 79.50 (±12.40%) with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 73.70 to 85.30, reveal good usability. These findings indicate a high level of acceptability of the MoveONParkinson digital solution, serving as a foundation for assessing its impact on exercise engagement and, subsequently, its influence on symptom management and quality of life of PwPD.

    Keywords: Parkinson's Disease1, Mobile Health2, MoveONParkinson3, self-efficacy4, User engagement5, Self-management6, Behavior Change7

    Received: 24 May 2024; Accepted: 06 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Alves, Mota, Sineiro, Carmo, Santos, Macedo, Carreira, Madeira, Dias and Pereira. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Beatriz Alves, School of Health, Polytechnic Institute of Setubal, Setúbal, 2910-761, Setubal, Portugal
    Pedro R. Mota, Escola Superior de Tecnologia de Setúbal, Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Setúbal, 2914-508, Portugal
    Daniela Sineiro, Escola Superior de Tecnologia de Setúbal, Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Setúbal, 2914-508, Portugal
    Ricardo Carmo, Escola Superior de Tecnologia de Setúbal, Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Setúbal, 2914-508, Portugal
    Pedro Santos, Other, Setúbal, Portugal
    Patrícia Macedo, Other, Setúbal, Portugal
    João C. Carreira, Comprehensive Health Research Center, New University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
    Sofia B. Dias, Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Human Performance (CIPER), Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada da Costa, Dafundo 1499-002, Lisbon, Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal
    Carla M. Pereira, Comprehensive Health Research Center, New University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.