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This chapter firstly describes target behaviours for chronic diseases, chosen based on their prevalence and potential for self-management: type 2 diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, heart failure, obesity, asthma and ischaemic heart disease. High-level target behaviours (e.g. diet, physical activity, medication adherence, smoking cessation, symptom monitoring and management) are presented for each of these diseases when applicable, accompanied by low-level target behaviours. Next, we address ways of assessing these target behaviours – diet, physical activity, medication adherence and smoking cessation – a necessary first step for understanding these behaviours and identifying needs.

The final chapter presents open-access educational products that supplement this book: case studies and a web application to simulate behaviour change support in persons with chronic disease. The former is of particular interest for academic educators, while the latter may interest students independently pursuing training outside the classroom. These products can also be useful for professionals aiming to enhance behaviour change competencies in practice.First, we address key aspects of product development , including hallmarks such as the incorporation of behaviour change science and transnational co-production with users. Then, the main features of case studies and the web application with 2D virtual humans are described.

The study of body composition is a fascinating branch of the biological sciences where research and clinical practice go hand in hand. A strong theoretical background is needed to support the assessment and interpretation of body composition measurements, in order to have an impact and usefulness in the clinical setting. Body composition is a key component of health-related fitness with physical, morphological, and particularly important health-related implications during pregnancy. Pregnancy poses a major challenge for the study of body composition, as several techniques and overall methods and related assumptions are often not applicable, and pregnancy therefore requires specific assessment approaches. In the present chapter, we present a look into body composition fundamentals, how body composition can be assessed during pregnancy and what adaptations should be taken into consideration in the assessment and interpretation of body composition data. In the final section of the present chapter, a focus will be put on the effect of exercise on body composition during pregnancy.

Diabetes has significant clinical, economic and humanistic implications, both at a national and global level. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is highly prevalent in older people. This paper describes a first prototype of an application intended to facilitate self-care of older people with T2D, supplementing appointments with healthcare professionals. The application is based on a virtual assistant with an anthropomorphic representation. The virtual assistant is capable of speaking and expressing emotions through facial and body animations; it has been designed to act as a relational agent, developing long-term relationships with users. It targets adherence to medication, physical activity and diet, tailoring the intervention to users’ needs and characteristics. The Behavior Change Wheel was chosen as the theoretical approach to behaviour change and supports dialogue content. Built for Android devices, the architecture of the application first prototype includes a core component, a dialogue creator, a speech generator and a database. The first tests on the application contents and usability were conducted in a sample of ten academic nurses with expertise in primary care. Overall, these tests yielded a positive opinion, as well as suggestions for improvement. On-going work includes testing the first prototype with older people with T2D plus health professionals in primary care units of the Portuguese National Health Service, and incorporating a rule-based context-sensitive dialogue manager, which is expected to convey a more flexible dialogue flow.