An online support system for promotion of a behavior change for persons with metabolic syndrome

The World Health Organization reported that ischemic heart disease is the most common cause of death worldwide in 2008. The main causes of ischemic heart disease are obesity, hypertension, arteriosclerosis and other metabolic abnormalities. These conditions are related to lifestyle issues, such as diet and exercise. We developed a system to support the self-management of patients using a personal digital assistant (PDA). However, diet management becomes more difficult as patient condition worsens. Both self-management and behavior change by persons with metabolic syndrome are needed to prevent ischemic heart disease. In the present study, we have improved the system to support behavior change in persons with metabolic syndrome. The system has three functions of an entry of user´s lifestyle information, a calculation of total amount of calorie intake and a reference to food model pictures of 80 kcal standard quantities for the behavior change. We focused on a self-review of user lifestyle as the first step of the behavior change. We conducted an experiment with the cooperation of 14 medical staff members to verify the operability of the system. No serious problems with the system were encountered. Additionally, we tested the system with health checkup examinees. The results of these tests suggested that our system will help physicians provide advice regarding total amount of calorie intake to health checkup examinees.