Living Green and Healthy for Teens (Aim2Be)

A mobile application for youth and their families

The Childhood Obesity Foundation is funded in part by the Public Health Agency of Canada to create Aim2Be with matched funds, including cash and in-kind, from Ayogo Health Inc., Merck Canada, Heart and Stroke, Diabetes Canada, Obesity Canada, Craving Change, David Suzuki Foundation and Pacific Blue Cross Foundation plus content support from the Canadian Men’s Health Foundation.

The Project was officially launched on April 21, 2017 by Minister Jane Philpott (Press Release).

Aim2Be (the name of the app) is a gamified mobile app designed to support youth (10-17 years) and their families to adopt lifelong healthy behaviours in four areas –  healthy eating, physical activity, screen time and sleep.

Aim2Be blends best evidence with proven behaviour change techniques to provide a non-judgemental, tailored and family-focused approach to support youth to reach current Canadian lifestyle recommendations. Aim2Be is delivered on a customized version of Ayogo Health Inc.’s Empower Platform – a high touch, high tech engagement platform that includes social elements and gamification. It is designed to only take a few minutes of daily interaction.

Dr. Louise Mâsse, UBC’s School of Population and Public Health and BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute is the lead on evaluating Aim2Be with families across Canada. Aim2Be is being built with input from families and tested with families with children/teens who have and do not have excess weight or obesity.

Pending positive evaluation results, and with the additional support of funders, Aim2Be will be made available to Canadians, in French and English, through app stores. The test version of Aim2Be is available now in the App Store and Google Play but only for enrolled research participants.

LiGHT Program Philosophy and Objectives.

• What do teens want and not want in a health app? (abstract presented at Dietitians of Canada conference June 2018)
• Supporting Family Health Behaviours with an App: What do Parents Value? (poster presented at 7th Conference on Recent Advances in the Prevention and Treatment of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity, October 25-27, 2018, Calgary Alberta)

For more information, contact the Project Director, Janice Macdonald.