A team from CINTESIS and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP) is recruiting persons with type 2 diabetes to participate in a study that will help them manage and control the disease.
The “Food Friend” project will develop and test a mobile application that will automatically monitor food intake and physical activity, providing personalized feedback on daily choices.
In this phase, volunteers will only have to use the new mobile app for three months. The goal is to understand whether the mobile application “enhances behavioral changes” and improves health and disease self-management in people with type 2 diabetes who use it.
Led by Alberto Freitas, a researcher at CINTESIS and professor at FMUP, this project aims to provide a new tool that measures food intake through photographic recognition, barcode or manual insertion. Besides, it gives “feedback” on the generated data, namely the number of steps taken daily and the evaluation of medication. The idea is that the user can also record his blood glucose values and medication data, as well as create notifications for drug taking.
Those persons with type 2 diabetes who are also smartphone users and are interested in participating in this project may register by filling out the form available online. After registration, volunteers will be invited to FMUP to install the application. At the same time, some measurements will be taken, such as weight and waist circumference, and questionnaires will be filled out.
This project is part of a European Consortium involving 17 entities from 4 countries and aims to develop tools to monitor, in an easy and automatic way, the food intake of people with chronic diseases.
The project, funded by Portugal 2020, includes CINTESIS and FMUP researchers Alberto Freitas (principal investigator), Cristina Santos, Paulo Santos, Andreia Pinto, João Viana and Glória Conceição.
The registration form can be filled out here. More information can be obtained through the email: foodfriend@med.up.pt.