Prolepsis

Prolepsis App’ is a mobile and online application created by a wide range of experts in the field from three European countries: Cyprus (CUT/Europa Donna), Italy (ANS), Portugal (PORTINCARERS), PTeece (Singularlogic), including Informal Carers.

The application has been designed specifically for female informal carers who assume the care of a loved one and face the challenges of caregiving often leaving them neglecting their health.

Such neglect can leave the informal caregiver at risk of adopting unhealthy behaviors, missing essential screening appointments, and experience a poor overall quality of life. The majority of informal carers assume this role at an age that is considered within the high margins of developing breast cancer which is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide.

Factors such as poor compliance to routine screening and the adoption of an unhealthy lifestyle (e.g. poor physical exercise) can increase the percentage of those who will eventually develop breast cancer that could be either prevented or detected in time, which can be lifesaving. In the busy environment of a female informal carer who struggles with the duties imposed by the caring process and those occurring in the everyday living within their own family, social, and work-life, together create a complex environment where the Prolepsis Application introduces its interventions in a non-disruptive and user-friendly manner.

Aiming at cultivating healthy and preventive self-empowering behaviors, the application is designed following the Health Belief Model (HBM), which is utilized as a systematic way to identify, explain, and predict preventive health behaviors. HBM states that health-related behaviors of people are based on their perceived susceptibility (refers to one’s perception of the risk or the chances of contracting a health disease or condition), perceived severity (a person’s perception of the seriousness of the consequences of contracting a disease), perceived benefit (One’s belief in the efficacy of the advised action to reduce risk or seriousness of impact), perceived barrier (One’s opinion of tangible and psychological costs of the advised action), cues to action (Strategies to activate “readiness”), and self-efficacy (Confidence in one’s ability to take action)