Supporting the self management of obesity: The role of ICTs

1. Supporting the self management of obesity: The role of ICTs ICTRI2 seminar, Department of Health, Wellington House, London February 15th 2007

2. 3 linked premises • People with long term and chronic conditions will themselves contribute solutions to their problems • These people can devise appropriate and relevant uses of ICTs to support them to do this • 1. and 2. can only be realised if appropriate sources of information and ICT support are available to those seeking to self manage their health conditions

3. Why obesity? • 'Obesity has rapidly become a serious problem, with over half of the population recorded as either overweight or obese. It is essential that people eat healthily and stay active if they are to stave off the threat of killer diseases like cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes and cancer. But we can’t force people to be healthy nor tell them how to lead their lives. What we can do is provide them with the information, advice and support to make their own choices. And this job starts with the healthcare professionals (Department of Health, 2004e, emphasis added).

4. Information and self care • Information and support central to self care agenda: • expert patient programme • patient trainers initiative • Little research into: • how ‘user engagement’ in self care is secured and sustained • role of ICTs in supporting such engagement

5. Information and communications technologies • Why ICTs? What ICTs? • A ‘sociotechnical’ approach: • Work: technologies and work practices • Everyday life: ‘domestication’ of technologies • Community: technologies and capacity building

6. The study • Local: City of Brighton and Hove • University partnership with statutory, voluntary and community sectors • Previous related research and partnership • Overall aim: • ‘to examine the potential for increased, innovative and effective uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the self management of obesity in one locality’

7. Objectives • to map the ‘information landscapes’ of those involved in the self management of obesity from provider and user viewpoints • to identify the opportunities and challenges posed by ICTs in the self management of obesity • to identify the specific IT, information and health literacy skills and needs of those seeking to make use of ICTs in this context • to design and run a series of participatory learning workshops to address skills needs and identify ways to better organise local health information to support obesity self management • to evaluate the impact of participation in these workshops in terms of its ability to lead to increased, innovative and effective uses of ICTs to support the self management of obesity in one locality

8. Methods, stages, outputs

9. Innovation in health sector • ‘Success’ in innovation: • ‘the development, empowerment, and emerging self-efficacy of vulnerable communities’ rather than ‘individual behaviour change in line with instructions passed down from central agencies’ (Greenhalgh, 2004, p10).

10. Research team Audrey Marshall, Dr Liz Guy (SIRU) Professor Helen Smith, Dr Leslie Carlin (BSMS) Mark Walker (SCIP/community IT consultant) Project Administrator: Laura Bottomley L.M.Bottomley@bton.ac.uk Project Director: Prof Flis Henwood f.henwood@bton.ac.uk