Looking for a way to determine how much or how little sleep and study your kid is having? The Healthy Day App, created by University of South Australia (UniSA), in collaboration with the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, might just be it! The app has been designed for parents to guide their wards with the right amount of sleep, study and exercise.
According to a report by ANI, the Healthy Day App helps parents determine which mix of activities will benefit their child's academic, physical and mental development best. According to a study conducted with regard to this app, substituting 60 minutes of physical exercise for 60 minutes spent watching television led to a 4.2% decrease in body fat, a 2.5% improvement in well-being and a 0.9% improvement in academic achievement.
It is claimed by lead researcher Dr Dot Dumuid of UniSA that the app's software will aid parents and healthcare providers in understanding the connections between children's time consumption, health and academic outcomes. "How children use their time can have a huge impact on their health, well-being and productivity," she said.
"We know that screens are not good for children's well-being, therefore, it is simple to predict the detrimental consequences on their health if they play video games instead of participating in sports. This app directs users toward better behaviours. We can simulate how any changes are anticipated to affect a child's physical, mental and academic performance by tracking the child's existing activities throughout the day and utilising the app to modify them," she added.
The software enables users to suppositionally modify time usage behaviours by analysing 1,685 data entries from the Australian Child Health CheckPoint research (children between the ages of 11 and 12), Dr Dot informed. "It's a quick and simple technique that can forecast results for children's health and wellbeing," she said, as per ANI.
She further explained how the software works. "Users are first asked to enter a child's current 24-hour time usage across seven categories, including sleep, screen time, physical activity, quiet time (such as reading or listening to music), passive transportation (such as taking public transportation), school-related time (including homework) and domestic/self-care time (chores/getting ready)," the researcher said.
She also stated that the app has a sophisticated function that allows medical experts to take social class and puberty into account. App users can change sliders to test out different time reallocations on the following panel (accessible by choosing "Specify reallocations" on the left sidebar). In numerical and graphical formats, expected variations in body fat percentages, psychological well-being, and academic performance are shown, she informed, as per ANI.
According to her, the Healthy Day App "allows parents, caregivers and health professionals to think about potential changes to a child's day and predict how this would affect health outcomes. I advise parents to experiment with it since they never know how it can make them reevaluate how much screen time their children spend in the car, at a cafe or while they are waiting for an appointment. You might be surprised."
