RESEARCH ARTICLE


Improving Childhood Obesity Treatment Using New Technologies: The ETIOBE System



Rosa. M Baños*, 1, Ausias Cebolla 2, 4, Cristina Botella 2, 4, Azucena García-Palacios 2, 4, Elia Oliver 1, Irene Zaragoza 3, 4, Mariano Alcaniz 3, 4
1 Universidad de Valencia, Spain
2 Universitat Jaume I de Castellón, Spain
3 Instituto de Investigación en Bioingenieria y Tecnología Centrad en el Ser Humano. I3BH. Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain
4 CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CB06/03), Instituto Carlos III, Spain


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Creative Commons License
© Baños et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Departamento de Personalidad, Evaluación y Tratamientos Psicológicos, Facultad de Psicología Avda. Blasco Ibáñez, 21 46010 – Valencia. Spain; Tel: 34- 963- 864412; E-mail: banos@uv.es


Abstract

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 Home Support System (HSS) and the Mobile Support System (MSS). The use of new Information and Communication (ICT) technologies can help clinicians to improve the effectiveness of weight loss treatments, especially in the case of children, and to achieve designated treatment goals.

Keywords: Obesity, e-health, e-therapy, persuasive technology, cognitive-behavioural treatment.