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Improving preventive behavior in relation to tick bites and lyme disease for professionals in the green sector

Lier, Luuk van (2013) Improving preventive behavior in relation to tick bites and lyme disease for professionals in the green sector.

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Abstract:Objective: New means for informing people are created due to the uprising communication technologies. These new technologies can be used to improve preventive health behavior. Professionals in the green sector in the Netherlands (and abroad) are facing with the uprising problem of ticks and Lyme infection. The RIVM (Dutch National Institute for Public Health and Environment) would like to improve preventive behavior among those people. The intention is to create an user centered e-Health application that changes behavior and attitude of those people in such a way that it would result in fewer tick bites and Lyme infections. The objective for this research is to provide guidelines for such a system based on needs and requirements from the stakeholders and molded into a persuasive technology. Methods: The CeHRes roadmap is used as guideline for the holistic design process. Through this roadmap different techniques were used for gathering and processing the data. Two large reports conducted in the Netherlands with cooperation of Stigas (Prevention service for the agricultural and green sector) were used , in the sector ‘forest and nature’(n=1019) (Bosschap & Stigas, 2009) and in the greening- and gardeners sector (n=798) (Stigas, 2010) Other methods were: stakeholder analysis, user observation, interviews (n=15), online focus group (n=5), personas, brainstorming and prototyping. Thematic analysis is used for processing the data. Beside the empirical data the system is supported by persuasive features based on the PSD (Persuasive System Design) and BCSS (Behavior Change Support System). Results: Derived from the empirical data it seems that professionals in the green sector feel that the problem with ticks and Lyme is not recognized enough by health care professionals and their own employers. Prevention for tick bites and Lyme infection should focus on providing information about ticks and Lyme and preventive measures. Combining off- and online media seems best suited for the job, whereas face-to-face contact is most preferable. The provided information should be based on a guideline that is national accepted by all those working in the green sector. Information should be clear and simple and should include both low-level and high-level information. Conclusion: Using technologies alone such as an e-Health app for a mobile phone would be one step too far, however combining this with other media seems to be suited for the job. Using the holistic CeHRes roadmap based on human centered design can increase the adherence with the persuasive system, incorporating needs and requirements from different stakeholders. This e- Health application can be seen as a product that does improve preventive behavior. However only relying on such an application would be insufficient; more research is needed as improvement within the health care and organizations.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:88 social and public administration
Programme:Health Sciences MSc (66851)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/63107
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