Promoting and supporting healthy living by design

Chronic diseases are the main causes of premature deaths, and the number of these deaths keeps growing. People often do not understand, however, that by changing their diet and how much they exercise, they can drastically reduce their risk of being affected by chronic disease. The key to moderating people's behaviour lies in raising awareness of the links between lifestyle and chronic disease and in supporting the adoption and maintenance of a healthy lifestyle. Despite rises in global spending on health care, the pressure on resources is growing as people live longer. With people already using technology for medical information, it is an opportune time to develop technologies that can be used to raise public awareness of the links between lifestyle choices and chronic disease, and facilitate behavioural change.