Excerpt from Practical Apps 12: Changing Behaviour with Apps
By Dr. Payal Agarwal
An Ontario-based study suggests that 60 per cent of deaths are attributable to poor health behaviours. In fact, life spans would increase by seven years on average if five key unhealthy behaviours were eliminated …
- excessive alcohol consumption
- poor diet
- physical inactivity
- high stress
- smoking
Unfortunately, we all know this is easier said than done. Changing behaviour can be very challenging and requires ongoing resources to build knowledge, motivation and confidence among those ready to change.
The growth of mobile health apps provides an exciting opportunity to support healthy behaviour changes. Digital apps can support behaviour change through a variety of features including education, tracking, reminders and social networking.
[toggle title=”Review of 3 Canadian apps for better health”]
Carrot Rewards Visit App Website
App Rating
Carrot Rewards provides Canadians in B.C., Ontario and Newfoundland with rewards points for completing educational quizzes and improving their activity levels.
Users earn real points on one of several popular reward programs for common items like gas, movies and flights by tracking activity levels and completing educational quizzes.
The app syncs with common fitness trackers and rewards users for meeting challenges to increase their step count.
EaTracker Visit App Website
App Rating
EaTracker was created by the Dieticians of Canada with support from the B.C. Ministry of Health. The app’s main feature is its ability to track detailed nutritional intake based on meals entered by the user. This requires users to find meals from a long – but culturally limited – list or manually enter each ingredient into a meal.
The app is actively support by the dieticians at EatRight Ontario who can provide some guidance for Ontario-based users. Motivated people who desire a detailed understanding of nutrition might find this app helpful in their quest for a healthier lifestyle.
My Food Guide Visit App Website
App Rating
This simple app created by Health Canada enables users to review Canada’s Food Guide and explore food options in each category. While it has a relatively limited feature set, its bright visuals and easy navigation make it enjoyable to use. The app focuses on understanding nutrition using food groups and not calories, as most apps do. This is likely better for some patients. Users can add foods they enjoy to each food group. There is no way to track daily intake. The app collects minimal health information and is being actively updated. Overall, this app is likely too basic for many people motivated to improve their health but would be helpful for those who need to learn the basics of nutrition and require a simple, easy-to-use app to get them started.
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