Physical Activity Based on M-Health Tools: Design a New Strategy for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) represents 31% of global deaths; the cost for
Europe was estimated at €122.6 billion in 2020, with an increase in €20.5 billion
over 6 years. It has been demonstrated that leisure-time physical activity reduces
the risk of CVD regardless of age and gender. Nevertheless, the use of physical
activity as a “treatment” in health care is still scarce. According to the WHO, this
under-usage is due to: (i) difficulty in monitoring patients’ activities; (ii) absence
of guidelines; and (iii) lack of competences in sport activity prescription. New
technologies have been implemented to promote physical activity. Innovation in
this field offers, nowadays, several different tools to boost physical activity to
prevent CVD. Being drawn into the emerging relevance of the diffusion of
m-health services, this work intends to investigate the role of the public sector in
addressing the specific strategies needed to favor the adoption of a m-health
system to boost physical activity for CVD prevention. We depicted our
investigation starting from the fuzzy zone between the time in which an
innovation is available, and the time when a public service can be effectively
affected by this innovation. The study examines which factors foster the
planning and implementation of a m-health service as a booster of well-being
behaviors among patients and practitioners. Particularly, this chapter reports on
the initial deducing findings coming from an exploratory pilot study targeted on
qualitative interviews with privileged experts in the areas of CVD and
Kinesiology. Findings appear to claim for a change in the framework of
intervention in the general public policy setting, pushing for a change in vision,
approach, institutional framework, and cultural setting. Aspects such as: absence
of guidelines, lack of specific physical training as well as the necessity to rethink
the governance to access services have been found as challenges to be faced, at
policy level, toward the realization of value co-creation schemes in health care.