BIO-STREAMS (www.bio-streams.eu) is a four-year project funded by the European Union (EU) under the Research and Innovation Action program (Grant No.101089718). It aims to provide essential holistic solutions to tackle childhood obesity. It brings together 30 partners from 15 European countries to design, create, develop, and implement a multi-pillar framework for children's anti-obesity behavior.
The BIO-STREAMS solution is based on three major modules. The first is the development of the first child/adolescent obesity Biobank in Europe to standardize data collection and enhance data sharing for better diagnosis and treatment. The second concerns the BIO-STREAMS platform's design and development, including an obesity risk assessment platform using Machine Learning (ML) techniques and a digital marketplace. In this marketplace, participants will be able to use serious games through the Active Health App that aim to provide recommendations for increasing physical activity (PA) to the desired levels, reducing sedentary behavior, and improving dietary habits incorporating the micro-moments concept. These recommendations resulted from a systematic review and meta-analysis conducted by partners of the BIO-STREAMS Consortium, aimed to investigate the association between nutrition, PA, and overweight/obesity, metabolically unhealthy obesity in children and adolescents. The third module concerns the development of an EU social network (BIO-STREAMS social network) to facilitate communication and dissemination of best practices among stakeholders.
The use of ML models will contribute to the identification of prognostic biomarkers (>15 new insights), while the personalized, gamified intervention aims to increase adherence (>50% of individuals). The validation of the platform will be carried out through a feasibility study in 7 pilot sites in 6 different countries in Europe that will examine the acceptability and usability of the Active Health App and the risk of metabolic dysfunction, reduction of body mass (>5%), and the improvement of health/food literacy and the quality of life using validated outcome measures.
BIO-STREAMS' integrated multi-level approach is anticipated to substantially contribute to promoting a healthier lifestyle, shaping appropriate health policies in the EU, and enhancing the standard of living for the underage population. Thus, is expected to be a beneficial tool in clinical environments.
In the BIO-STREAMS project, WHO’s guidelines for promoting PA have been considered. ML models and innovative technology are being applied to develop personalized interventions to prevent childhood obesity. The Physiotherapy community can also benefit.
digital marketplace
gamification of recommended physical activity
