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Obesity is a prominent global concern that is correlated with several chronic diseases and associated mortalities. Social determinants and environmental factors play an important role in the adoption of certain behaviors that cause obesity and related health issues. This makes obesity a complex public health issue dependent on several individual, socioeconomic, behavioral, and physiological factors (Dixon, 2010).
National survey data show that the obesity epidemic began in the U.S. over 50 years ago (Finucane, et al., 2011). In 2017 –2018, US obesity prevalence increased from 30.5% to 42.4%. During the same time, the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2% (CDC, 2022).
The World Health Organization (WHO) formally recognized the obesity epidemic’s global impact during a special obesity consultation in 1997 (James, 2008). Over the past 15 years, a large body of evidence has been accumulated documenting temporal increases in the prevalence of obesity worldwide. Obesity has roughly tripled globally since 1975. In the year 2020, 39 million children under the age of five were overweight or obese. In 2016, nearly 340 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 years old were overweight or obese. More than 1.9 billion individuals aged 18 and over were overweight in 2016. Over 650 million of them were fat. In 2016, 39 percent of adults aged 18 and above were overweight, with 13 percent being obese. Overweight and obesity kill more individuals than underweight in the majority of the world's population (WHO, 2022).
Smart cities are a critical arena for promoting physical activity and long-term health for their inhabitants (Galea & Tsay, 2021). Cities that are designed in a way that encourages more physical activity will have a big impact on the growth of any region. The Urban Development Network Program (URBACT) Healthy Cities Network suggests two important solutions for healthier smart cities: (i) active participation of city citizens in the decision-making process, and (ii) engagement of the health sector in the design of a healthy modern cities (Serrà, 2021).
Virtual reality (VR) has been utilized in the development of technologies to encourage physical activity and obesity control in the last decade. Existing VR technologies, on the other hand, lack the integration of potential users and the early involvement of healthcare practitioners in the design and development process. Involvement of potential users and health practitioners is critical in obtaining necessary semantic information that aids in recognizing stakeholders' requirements and ensuring that all elements of health are considered.
Therefore, the goal of this research is to investigate the sociodemographic aspects as well as individual-level traits and preferences that influence the effectiveness and satisfaction of any obesity-control VR tool for a wide variety of users. Furthermore, the paper seeks the input of health practitioners to determine the best health elements that should be included in the design of any VR product. The sociodemographic analysis help towards the development of the knowledge society by providing sufficient information about user trends and experts opinions. Our analysis aims to help in providing rich semantic information that is more domain-oriented which will make the design of VR applications and tools more intuitive. Such tools will be easily augmented on the semantic web and on personal and mobile devices for the use of organizations, business, and citizens.