Results of a tailored communication framework through e-health

This paper proposes a new framework to enhance the interaction of individuals with e-health and encourage the adoption of healthy lifestyles. Achieving a lifestyle change by the use of e-health is a complex issue that can be broadly addressed by analysing, in parallel the individuals' attitude towards their health condition and their approach and readiness to monitor and change their attitude by the use of new technologies. Our work has been to conceive, develop and evaluate a novel framework that explains how to promote the acceptance of e-health in terms of the perception of healthcare and of the use of technology to perform a desired or recommended lifestyle change. In order to place the user at each dimension a set of questionnaires was designed and implemented. These questionnaires assisted us in understanding what personalised information needs to be provided according to the stage the user is at as well as to other variables (such as age, cultural background, etc). Moreover, we created a communication strategy to provide tailored information regarding promotion and prevention of healthcare by means of e-health and promote the use of technology solutions to improve individuals' habits by enhancing their interaction with technological means. The framework was finally evaluated by users and healthcare professionals.