Rashaka app is personal guide application where the user can track their weight based on the related information he has inserted. He can also track his physical activity, calculate his BMI and be provided with fitness tips. The application also includes features such as the user’s food and sleep log as well as his drinking alarm.
It is available in two languages, English and Arabic. It also needs location permission since it tracks the user’s physical activity and it is needed to measure the distance he has jogged from start to endpoints.
For that reason, we are using the Apple Health Kit and Motion co-processor to count steps related to user’s exercise without impact on the phone’s battery life.
The rapid changes that occurred on the nutrition and diet levels in addition to the lack of physical activities led to the increase of obesity and overweight individuals.
WHO reports that more than 1.4 billion adults are overweight; more than half a billion are obese globally, and more than 40 million children under the age of 5 are facing obesity worldwide. According to the National Health Information Survey of 2013: The rate of obesity in Saudi Arabia is 28.7% and the overweight rate is 30.7% in the 15 and over age group among men and women.
A study on children in 2013 has shown that bad eating habits and the decrease in physical activities are becoming recurrent. It also revealed that the overweight rate among schoolers is 23 % whereas the obesity rate is 9.3 %; noting that obesity is connected to chronic diseases such as heart and vascular diseases. Not to forget type 2 diabetes, arthritis and other diseases that have an impact on the social, economic and health levels.
In cooperation with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health has adopted the Rashaka initiative to decrease the obesity levels among students in schools. The initiative aims at promoting a healthy lifestyle through the improvement of diet behaviors, the increasing of physical activities among students and the raising of health awareness regarding the risks of obesity and its prevention, especially that schools are the right place for such interventions.