Sedentary: A Healthy Lifestyle App for Home Office Workers

David Mauricio; César Marcelo Flores-Cortegana; Anthony Jaimar Shuan-Arias; Pedro Castañeda; Leonardo Rojas-Mezarina; José Luis Castillo-Sequera

doi:10.3991/ijim.v19i08.49147

Authors

David Mauricio Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9262-626X
César Marcelo Flores-Cortegana Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Lima, Peru https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6956-4001
Anthony Jaimar Shuan-Arias Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Lima, Peru
Pedro Castañeda Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Lima, Peru https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1865-1293
Leonardo Rojas-Mezarina Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Lima, Peru https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0293-7107
José Luis Castillo-Sequera Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, Spain https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9131-1618

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v19i08.49147

Keywords:

home office, sedentarism, healthy lifestyle, chatbot, awareness

Abstract

Although home office employment has been happening for several decades, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented surge in telework. Concurrently, the prevalence of sedentary individuals has gradually increased, posing health challenges. In this study, we introduce a mobile app designed to promote healthy lifestyles (HLs) among home office workers (HOWs). Central to this app is an IBM Watson Assistant-powered Chatbot, offering remote workers a near-natural interface to enhance their well-being. Users can establish lifestyle improvement goals, receive activity reminders, earn rewards upon achieving goals, and employ their smartphone’s pedometer to measure their physical activity (PA) levels. Additionally, the app includes questionnaires to gauge the user’s knowledge on sedentarism and HL. The app’s efficacy was assessed via a two-week trial involving 20 participants. The results showed that HL knowledge was improved in 46% of the users. Usability surveys yielded high ratings in terms of usefulness, user-friendliness, and recommendations.

Author Biographies

David Mauricio, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru

David Mauricio has a PhD in Computer and Systems Engineering and a Master's degree in Applied Mathematics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). He has been a professor at the Universidad Estadual Norte Fluminense in Brazil (1994-1998), and since 1998 he is a full professor at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru. Areas of interest: Mathematical Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, Entrepreneurship (email: dmauricios@unmsm.edu.pe, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9262-626X)

Pedro Castañeda, Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Lima, Peru

Pedro Castañeda has a PhD in Systems Engineering - UNMSM, a Master's Degree in Management and Information Technology Management - UNMSM and a Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA) - ESAN. He currently leads projects of electronic brokering, software development and process improvement, using agile and traditional methodologies. He has the following certifications: Project Management Professional (PMP), Scrum Certified Developer (CSD), IBM Certified Professional in Rational Unified Process, ORACLE Certifications. Teacher of Project Management Methodologies and Software Development in public and private universities. Areas of Interest: Software Productivity, Business Intelligence, Machine Learning, Software Engineering. (email: pcsipcas@upc.edu.pe, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1865-1293).

Leonardo Rojas-Mezarina, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Lima, Peru

Leonardo Rojas-Mezarina is surgeon from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), specialist in Health Administration and Management (UPCH), Master (c) in Health Management (UPCH), RENACYT Researcher, Coordinator of the Health Information and Innovation Technologies research group and Associate Professor of the Academic Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health (UNMSM). Former General Director of the General Office of Information and Systems of the National Institute of Health. He is currently Executive Director of the Telemedicine Directorate of the Peruvian Ministry of Health and Head of the Telehealth Unit of the UNMSM. (email: leonardo.rojas@unmsm.edu.pe)

José Luis Castillo-Sequera, Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, Spain

José Luis Castillo-Sequera received the degree in computing from the National
University of San Marcos, Peru, the master’s degree in computer project management
and the master’s degree in university teaching in Spain, and the Ph.D. degree in
information systems, documentation, and knowledge from the University of Alcalá,
Spain. He is currently a Full Professor with the Department of Computer Science,
University of Alcalá (Spain). He has multiple publications at the level of high-level
indexed JCR journals and is the author of books and book chapters related to the
field of artificial intelligence. His research interests include information retrieval,
knowledge extraction and neural network, data mining and big data and machine
learning. He also leads projects of technological innovation oriented to the use of ICTs
in university research groups. His research interests include business technologies
(E-mail: jluis.castillo@uah.es).