Dukoo

Childhood overweight and obesity is a major social problem because of its negative health consequences and rising healthcare costs. The Combined lifestyle intervention (GLI) is described as most effective in the recent guideline ‘Diagnostics, support and care for obese children’ (Partnership Overweight Netherlands/VU, 2022) and should be available in all municipalities by 2030 (National Prevention Agreement VWS, 2018). The aim is to improve lifestyle related to exercise, eating and sleeping. Healthcare professionals involved are paediatric physiotherapists, dieticians, youth nurses and paediatricians. In practice, however, it appears that the effectiveness of current care is not optimal and not all overweight and obese children are reached. Due to increasing numbers of overweight and obese children on the one hand and shortages of professionals in care, it is expected to become even more difficult to provide appropriate support to all children and young people in the future.

To develop an app within a Personal Health Environment (PHE) for adolescents with overweight, enabling them to independently make small, achievable lifestyle changes. The app also allows young people to monitor and share their outcomes related to quality of life, nutrition, sleep, and physical activity with healthcare professionals, providing a foundation for shared decision-making conversations.

With the adolescent's consent, healthcare professionals can remotely monitor lifestyle progress, provide guidance, and send information or questionnaires.

The HuP! application within Ivido's Personal Health Environment (PHE) is functional and available free of charge for adolescents. Key outcome measures can be shared with healthcare professionals to support shared decision-making consultations. The project has also generated insights into what healthcare professionals need to effectively engage in shared decision-making with adolescents who are overweight. Next steps include scaling the application for nationwide implementation (including within the Integrated Care Approach for Children Toward a Healthier Weight) and conducting a value assessment of HuP!.

In collaboration with a broad range of partners—including adolescents with overweight, pediatric physiotherapists, dietitians, knowledge institutes, and based on the Clinical Practice Guideline for Childhood Overweight—an application is being developed within a Personal Health Environment (PHE). The app integrates existing tools that help adolescents set and achieve small goals in the areas of physical activity, sleep, nutrition, and quality of life. In addition, the project investigates what both healthcare professionals and adolescents need to facilitate shared decision-making, and how the PHE can support this process.