Defense Dissertation Sumit Mehra
19-04-2021
On Monday, April 19, 2021, at 2 pm, Sumit Mehra will defend his thesis entitled: 'Development and Evaluation of a Blended Home-Based Exercise Intervention for Older Adults.'
The defense takes place entirely online and can be followed live. The link to the livestream will be posted on the website of the University of Amsterdam on April 19. A copy of the dissertation can be requested afterwards.
The (co)supervisors of Sumit Mehra's PhD research are Ben Kröse (Digital Life lectorate of the Faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industry), Peter Weijs (Faculty of Exercise, Sports and Nutrition) and Bart Visser (Faculty of Health) - all three affiliated with the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
The essence of the thesis is that older people can continue to live independently for longer if they exercise enough. However, many elderly people do not exercise enough. Sumit Mehra, lecturer in Applied Psychology and researcher at the Digital Life research group, describes in his thesis how a blended intervention can be designed to achieve behavioral change.
For his doctoral research, 146 elderly people used a tablet to perform exercises at home. Evaluations showed that after 6 months a large proportion of the participants were able to keep doing the exercises and experienced the tablet as useful.
In addition to the careful design of the app, the blended character of the intervention turned out to be crucial: a personal coach helped the elderly get started with the app, adjusted the exercise program where necessary and offered emotional support. In short, 'keeping the human in the loop' is the key to effective e-health interventions!
The research was funded with an NWO Doctoral Grant for Teachers.