By Alesha Capone
Staff from Werribee Mercy Hospital are participating in a major new research project which is investigating how digital tools can be used to help people manage their weight.
The University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA), Archetype Health, Werribee Hospital Foundation, Mercy Hospitals Victoria and the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (Digital Health CRC) have joined together for the two-year project.
The study will use an app which allows participants to put their own face on an avatar, and adjust exercise levels and food intake to see how their avatar’s appearance changes in an image.
Previous trials have shown these images are highly stimulating and can trigger behavioural changes in people, making them more motivated to make lifestyle changes to become healthier.
The study involving Werribee Mercy staff will undertake testing focused on how and when such digital tools should be offered to people.
Mercy Hospitals Victoria medical director, Dr Michael Dodson, said that Werribee Mercy Hospital staff were among the study’s participants.
“Since the UNDA clinical school is located just across the carpark, staff can easily be interviewed at the hospital or at the clinical school – although COVID has made this difficult,” he said.
Dr Dodson said digital applications provided “a unique opportunity” to deliver personalised tools to help motivate people to change their lifestyle choices.
“Apps represent a very powerful way of helping individuals regulate their behaviours,” he said.
Archetype Health director Dr Moyez Jiwa, who is also a professor at Notre Dame, said working on the study has been “very rewarding” because obesity impacts 60 to 80 per cent of people.
“This is especially true in Wyndham, where obesity rates are higher than most other places in Victoria,” Dr Jiwa said.
“We are very pleased to be partnering with the Werribee Mercy Hospital and Foundation on this study.
“We will be ready to welcome more participants as soon as the lockdown is lifted and it is once again safe for people to be in one room face to face.”
