Design of a feedback intervention to increase travel related physical activity of CVD patients

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients benefit from an active lifestyle with a certain level of physical activity. Assessing the physical activity level of patients in an objective manner can be problematic. Self-reporting tends to be biased and lack of therapy adherence has a negative influence on managing disease risk factors. In this paper we propose a digital framework which collects the level of physical activity of CVD patients with an app and processes this data to obtain an objective measure of physical activity, which is visualized in a dashboard available for the caretakers. By exploiting behavioural theories and combining them with this objective measure of physical activity, patients are classified according to their attitude towards active travel behaviour. Based on this knowledge, caretakers can propose a more active lifestyle to patients by identifying opportunities in making the daily trips of the patients more active. For example, short distances done by car can be suggested to be replaced by walking or biking. The behaviour theories also allow to assess the risk of not adhering to the prescribed therapy. This tool will help in providing a more tailored care and approach to persons with CVD.