The Prevention of Dementia using Mobile phone Applications (PRODEMOS) project has published a new paper in the journal BMJ Open, entitled “Attitudes and views on healthy lifestyle interventions for the prevention of dementia and cardiovascular disease among older people with low socioeconomic status: a qualitative study in the Netherlands”. In this study, authors explored the attitudes, experiences and views of Dutch low socioeconomic status older adults on healthy lifestyles for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and dementia. Authors also aimed to study the potential role for coach-supported mHealth use, facilitating development and further adaptation of the PRODEMOS mHealth intervention.
In total, 19 semi-structured interviews were performed in the Netherlands. Participants were 55 years or over, had a low socioeconomic background, no dementia diagnosis but had dementia risk factors, and possessed a smartphone. Findings suggested that participants had low levels of self-efficacy to change their lifestyle behaviour, and may benefit from lifestyle interventions with human support. Such lifestyle support should ideally take into account the individual’s own autonomy and should emphasize the direct, short-term gains of lifestyle changes for daily life. Moreover, given that the social network is important to start and maintain lifestyle behaviour change, involving peers may be a valuable approach when developing lifestyle interventions for low socioeconomic status older adults. You can read the paper, here:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35228289/
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 779238 and the National Key R&D Programme of China (2017YFE0118800). Further information on the PRODEMOS project can be found here: https://www.prodemos-project.eu