ABSTRACT
In this review of current mobile health and €tness applications, we focus on mHealth applications’ potential for preventive medicine interventions. According to the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM), this discipline aims to “… protect, promote, and maintain health and well-being and to prevent disease, disability and death … [in] individuals, communities, and de€ned populations” (American College of Preventive Medicine 1998). Currently, the biggest application area for preventive medicine is noncommunicable diseases (NCD). In 2008, NCD accounted for 63% of global death (WHO 2010) and prevalence of NCD is predicted to increase signi€cantly over the next years. According to the global status report on NCD (WHO 2010), the top four killers are cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes, and chronic lung diseases. Risk factors for these conditions are strongly related to lifestyle and health behavior, including unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and tobacco use (WHO 2009). Increasing protective health behaviors in patients is related to reducing health risks, improving health, and prolonging expected life span (e.g., Ahmed et al. 2013). Therefore, the World Health Organization (WHO 2010) has published recommendations for different health behaviors, including healthy diet and exercise, for reducing risk factors for NCD. For children, the WHO (2010) recommends at least 60 min of at least moderate physical activity a day and for adults 150 min of moderate or 75 min of vigorous physical activity during the week with aerobic activity sessions lasting at least 10 min.
