Web, mobile and monitoring technologies in self-management of psychophysiological wellbeing: Usage and user experiences

Stress and insufficient recovery from workload may lead to chronic diseases and mental health problems. Early intervention with the focus on self-management is necessary in prevention of these problems. This paper reports the results of an initial evaluation of a service concept which combines personal health technologies with psychological group interventions to support self-management of wellbeing focusing on stress, sleep and exercise. The approach is to provide a buffet of carefully chosen self-management methods and personal health technologies to support different individual needs and to allow a personalized approach to self-management. In the evaluation, the usage activity and perceived utility of the technologies were studied to analyze the feasibility of the approach and to determine improvement needs. The concept was well-accepted by the participants, and they reported having gained better understanding of their health and motivation to improve it. Improvements related to stress and exercise levels were also reported. Based on the differing technology selections of the participants and the high acceptance of technologies, providing an assortment of technologies to support self-management was proven successful. However, care must be taken in the introduction of such system to avoid burdening the users and to aid selection of personally relevant tools