Lesson 8: Healthy Lifestyle Apps
There is currently a wide variety of mobile applications aimed at improving the health and well-being of the population.
App Store and Play Store are two app shops where you can download all the apps you are interested in.
If your mobile is an iPhone, you can download the applications from the App Store.
If your mobile operating system is Android, you can download the applications from the Play Store.
Types and usefulness of mobile health applications
- Diet: apps for tracking nutrient intake or recording weight. They also show graphical information on health data and statistics.
- Health information and advice: apps that offer content in different formats, with advice and help for different pathologies.
- Disease management: apps for accessing health information and resources, medication control and therapeutic adherence, monitoring symptoms, recording medical parameters, glucose levels, etc., also providing instructions for carrying out different tasks or self-care.
- Health quantification: apps for recording of physical activity data. They are frequently used for sports training, measuring the distance travelled, speed, calories burned, etc. Others monitor parameters related to sleep quality or stress level.
Here are some apps that may be useful to you:
Healthtap is a mobile application that offers online health advice from certified medical experts. Thanks to this application, people can ask any questions they have about health and know that a doctor will respond confidentially within approximately 24 hours.
ShopWell simplifies nutrition labels and helps you find foods that fit your healthy diet. You can create a food profile with your dietary goals, allergies, health concerns, and dislikes, and get personalized nutrition scores when you scan a label. You can also find food recommendations and advice on which local supermarkets have the foods you are interested in.
Elevate is a mental training programme designed to improve concentration, speech skills, processing speed, memory, mathematical skills, and more. Elevate has over 40 games to help you improve critical cognitive skills, such as concentration, memory, processing, maths, accuracy, and comprehension.
Moodpath is an app that allows you to track your physical and mental wellbeing on a daily basis. With the results obtained, the app will provide you with a personalised mental health report after 15 days that will give you an insight into your state of mind. In addition, Moodpath has an informative section where you can access a large number of articles on topics related to depression, anxiety, etc.