Abstract—In prevention of chronic diseases, health promotion and early interventions based on self-management should be emphasized. Mental health problems and stress cause a significant portion of healthcare costs, and also complicate the management of other chronic conditions. In addition to physical health, psychophysiological and social wellbeing should be equally promoted. Thus, we have previously designed and reported the P4Well or Pervasive Personal and PsychoPhysiological management of WELLness concept for working-age citizens. The concept supports the stress and recovery management on a daily basis through improved health management strategies, and combines psychological methods with personal health technologies. In this paper, we discuss the preliminary user study experiences of ongoing evaluations with two different user groups consisting of: 1) middle-aged men who are using the concept for managing their mental wellbeing or mild depression; and 2) entrepreneurs who are using the concept for coping with stress. Our results provide a preliminary assessment of the role and importance of experts, technologies, and peer-support in the concept. I. INTRODUCTION Health includes physical, psychological and social components, which are highly interrelated. Mental health problems are the most common reason for early retirement in the OECD countries [1] and their economic costs to society are enormous, equaling 3–4% of the gross national product in the EU Member States [2]. Depression is the most common mental health problem, but is under- diagnosed and, especially, under-treated. Only one third of people with depressive disorders receive mental health treatment [3]. Due to the scale of the problem and lack of trained psychotherapists, there is a huge challenge to Manuscript received April 23, 2009. This work was supported by Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes). The authors wish to thank the project partner companies: Nokia Corp., Suunto Ltd., Mawell Ltd., Firstbeat Technologies Ltd., Vivago Ltd., Varma, Mehiläinen Ltd., Solaris, JTO School of Management, and Duodecim Medical Publications Ltd. for their valuable contribution to the project. Antti P. Happonen, Kirsikka Kaipainen, Antti Väätänen, Elina Mattila, and Ilkka Korhonen are with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, P.O.Box 1300, FI-33101 Tampere, Finland. Marja-Liisa Kinnunen, Päivi Lappalainen, Henna Tuomela, and Raimo Lappalainen are with University of Jyväskylä, Department of Psychology, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Tero Myllymäki and Heikki Rusko are with University of Jyväskylä, Department of Biology of Physical Activity, P.O. Box 35 FI-40014, Jyväskylä, Finland. (corresponding author Antti P. Happonen phone: 358 40 487 0166; e-mail: antti.happonen@vtt.fi). provide recommended treatments to all in need. This can only be achieved with methods which utilize scarce therapist resources more efficiently, foster patient empowerment in care and self-treatment, and make efficient self-management tools available in large populations. In a holistic approach of wellbeing, all inter-related key aspects (physical, mental, and social) should be acknowledged. Factors contributing to decrements in mental health include stress and sleep problems. For example, extended stress may lead to burnout and depression, and is a risk factor for diseases such as hypertension and diabetes [4]. The stressors can rarely be totally avoided, but stress recovery methods can help people cope with stress [5]. An important tool to protect people from health problems and diseases is regular exercise, which can improve people’s psychophysiological wellbeing [6]. Computer-aided Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CCBT) programs delivered through the Internet have shown their effectiveness for mental wellbeing problems [7]. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) of the UK recommends CCBT as a primary intervention method for anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression [8]. The reported CCBT methods, however, do not fully exploit the available modern mobile and ambient technologies, and mostly focus solely on mental wellbeing and lack the holistic approach. We have previously proposed a concept for working-age citizens to empower their self-management of psychophysiological wellbeing through management of stress and recovery from stress [9]. Our P4Well concept integrates several personal health technologies, including web-based tools and software, wearable monitoring devices, mobile phone with special software, and various analysis methods to interpret the gathered and acquired data and to provide feedback. These technologies are used along with modern psychological mini-intervention methods, such as CCBT, to help people manage stress, sleep and mental problems by encouraging and helping them to adopt a healthier lifestyle. The focus of the concept is on early prevention of or intervention on mental and health problems, based especially on assessing stress and recovery, sleeping and exercise habits. The concept fosters self- management but supports expert consultation through the Internet, and aims to lower the barrier for seeking information, help, and possible treatment [10]. The devices, software, and psychophysiological theories and methods are A Concept to Empower Self-Management of Psychophysiological Wellbeing: Preliminary User Study Experiences Antti P. Happonen, Kirsikka Kaipainen, Antti Väätänen, Marja-Liisa Kinnunen, Tero Myllymäki, Päivi Lappalainen, Henna Tuomela, Heikki Rusko, Elina Mattila, Raimo Lappalainen, and Ilkka Korhonen 312 31st Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, September 2-6, 2009 978-1-4244-3296-7/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE