A smartphone app being developed by researchers at UMass Medical School in Worcester and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute may help people avoid stress eating.
The app — called RELAX — will allow users to track their daily activities, eating patterns, exercise, mood and stress-inducing events. With that information, the tool will provide users with an itemized list of foods consumed, indicate the times of day identified as high-stress moments and illustrate the relationship between food intake and stress. Coaching for dietary choices and guided stress-reducing exercises will also be available to app users.
For clinicians, RELAX will enable them to access information on their patients' eating habits to better inform treatment and reduce the number of patient visits to their physician or counselor.
Development of the app is supported in large part by a $2 million award from the National Institutes of Health.
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