Towards family-centered health technologies that support distributed families on sustainable healthy practices together

Family relationships can be resources to foster individuals' healthy behaviors. However, in many families, different factors can prevent members in supporting one another around positive health outcomes. A systematic understanding of these factors is crucial for developing appropriate solutions to reduce barriers on family collaboration in health promotion. In this paper, we focus on one factor that affects family support in healthy living: geographic distance. We present a formative study composed by two research explorations which aimed to examine distributed family members' needs and challenges to engage in healthy living together. First, an interview study helped us understand families' practices in engaging in health conversations. Then, findings from focus group discussions provided necessary knowledge to explore the use of technology to support conversations around health topics by distributed families. We draw on our findings to present practical recommendations for researchers working towards supporting intergenerational families on healthy practices collectively when living apart.