Aaron Dallman
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ·Public Health & Epidemiology
Children and adolescents with Down syndrome face higher risks of health problems tied to daily habits, including obesity and sleep apnea, a condition in which breathing repeatedly stops during sleep. These problems can lower well-being for both the child and their caregivers.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Psychology
- Topics
Down syndrome
mobile health
mHealth
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Develop ThriveDS, a game-based wellness app for children and adolescents with Down syndrome, using evidence review, focus groups with parents and expert interviews analyzed with directed content analysis to choose features.
- Refine an alpha version of the app through usability testing with 10 users, adding educational videos, game elements and personalized prompts based on wearable activity tracker data on activity and sleep.
- Assess the feasibility, acceptability and usability of ThriveDS in a 3-month beta test with 27 participants with Down syndrome, using app analytics, questionnaires and interviews with 15 caregivers.
More about the research
Apps and wearable sensors can encourage healthy routines at home and reach many families. Yet few wellness apps are designed for people with Down syndrome. This project asks whether a tailored, game-based app can help these young people be more active, eat better and sleep better.
Why it matters
Young people with Down syndrome are at higher risk of obesity and sleep apnea. A wellness app built for their needs and abilities could help them and their families build healthier activity, diet and sleep habits at home. If the app proves feasible, it could lead to a randomized trial testing effects on activity, diet, sleep and weight.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Carmina Valle
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether a 6-month mHealth weight-loss program tailored to adolescent and young adult cancer survivors produces greater weight loss at 6 months than a self-guided program, in a nationwide randomized trial of 240 survivors.
Hang Hai
Tulane University of Louisiana, LA·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Co-design, with community partners, an orientation video that walks users through setting up and using the TRIPP virtual reality mindfulness app, to reduce barriers such as limited technology literacy.
Rakesh Malhotra
University of California-San Diego, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Test whether a wearable activity tracker plus weekly personalized text messages increases weekly step count more than a tracker alone in hemodialysis patients, using a 6-month SMART randomized trial.
The school
Rutgers University-New Brunswick: 57 labs on PI Pages, $837M a year on research, 713 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.