Abstract :
[en] The Be He@lthy, Be Mobile initiative is a global
partnership led by the World Health Organization
(WHO) and the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU), representing the United
Nations agencies for health and information
and communications technologies (ICTs). The
initiative supports the scale up of mobile health
technology (mHealth) within national health
systems to help combat noncommunicable diseases
(NCDs) and support healthy ageing.
Mobile health, or mHealth, is defined as "medical
and public health practice supported by mobile
devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring
devices, personal digital assistants, and
other wireless devices” (1). The Be Healthy, Be
Mobile initiative uses basic technologies common
in most mobile phones. The BHBM initiative
has overseen the development and implementation
of several mHealth programmes, including
mTobaccoCessation (2), mDiabetes, and mCervicalCancer.
The mHealth programme-specific
handbooks act as aids to policy-makers and
implementers of national or large-scale mHealth
programs. See Annex 1 for further information on
the Be He@lthy, Be Mobile initiative.
mHealth for Ageing, or mAgeing is a new programme
under the initiative, the central objective
of which is to assist older persons (a person
whose age has passed the median life expectancy
at birth) in maintaining functional ability and
living as independently and healthily as possible
through evidence-based self-management and
self-care interventions.
This handbook provides guidance for national
programmes and organizations responsible for
the care of older persons to develop, implement,
monitor, and evaluate an mAgeing programme.
The text messaging communication provided
uses evidence-based behaviour change techniques
to help older persons prevent and manage
early declines in intrinsic capacity and functional
ability. The mAgeing programme is based on
WHO’s Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE):
Guidelines on community-level interventions to
manage declines in intrinsic capacity (3) which
include interventions to prevent declines in intrinsic
capacity and functional abilities in older
people, namely: mobility loss, malnutrition, visual
impairment and hearing loss; as well as cognitive
impairments and depressive symptoms. The
messages are designed to encourage participation
in activities, and to prevent, reduce, or even
partly reverse, significant losses in capacity. The
content of the mAgeing programme will complement
routine care offered by health care professionals
by supporting self-care and self-management.
All content in this handbook is based on the
WHO ICOPE Guidelines and other relevant WHO
recommendations. The ICOPE Guideline recommendations
were reached by the consensus of
a guideline development group, convened by
WHO, which based its decisions on a summary of
systematic reviews of the best quality evidence
most relevant to community-level care for older
people, as well as the most up-to-date research
on the effectiveness of mHealth.
