In breast cancer prevention month, the Prolepsis project partnership launches the Prolepsis app for self-monitoring of health and primary prevention of breast cancer.
The app is aimed at all women, with a special focus on those who have the role of caregiver, i.e. who take care of a dependent loved one. Indeed, caregiving can be an obstacle to the proper monitoring of one’s own health, due to a number of factors including:
• Time – One’s own time is primarily invested in caring for the other person.
• Priority – One’s own needs are generally put on the back burner, giving priority to the needs of the loved one.
• Guilt – Lack of time and the existence of priorities are not only objective factors, but they are influenced also the perception of the carer. Dedicating moments in the day to oneself and one’s own needs often generates a perception of guilt.
• Fear – Undergoing preventive examinations can awaken a fear of falling ill and not being able to care for the loved one.
• Support network – Caregivers may feel alone and disempowered without a support network. Moreover, the lack of a social network is not only a psychological risk, but also a practical one, as the caregiver does not know who to entrust his/her loved one to in case of absence.
The application aims to overcome these obstacles, representing an easy-to-use tool for women, customised according to their characteristics and needs.
Download the app: Adroid | iOS
For this reason, 37 women caregivers, 13 health professionals, including psychologists, nurses, nutritionists, doctors in exercise sciences from 3 involved countries, Cyprus, Italy and Portugal, participated in the validation and revision process. These women had the opportunity to participate in a series of meetings dedicated to
breast health and breast cancer prevention. The training covered different aspects, such as nutrition, exercise, screening exams and self-examination not only in presence but also thanks to the app.
In fact, Prolepsis App is divided into different sections:
• Articles: this section contains training modules and in-depth material, such as books, articles, recommended podcasts, each associated with a theme
• Videos: this section contains the video-modules created by the partnership, webinars, video-recipes and any in-depth videos of the topics covered
• History: this section allows you to record your scheduled examinations and breast self-exams, so that you can receive reminders on set days
• Chat: this section allows you to create chats and interact with friends who have downloaded the app. Chats also has
the function of rebuilding a virtual and physical support network: when a caregiver’s exam is approaching, her network is notified so that help can be offered.
The partnership has also published a video tutorial, which supports the new user in using the app.
TO READ MORE ABOUT THE PROLEPSIS PROJECT EXPERIENCE, PILOT TRAINING AND APPLICATION VALIDATION
https://prolepsis.eu/download/1774/
This press release is available in: